#still not sure where in the timeline they'll end up

[permanentmess]

thunderbolts* (with some platonic x reader) headcanons

a/n: i've been accumulating these for a while and through my 5 total rewatches of this film. remember these are just my personal headcanons, but i would absolutely love to hear yours too! this is very short btw

warnings: mentions of trauma/mental illness/ptsd, slight language, alcohol/consumption of it (minor), also my own personal version of how things happen which is where everyone lives and nothing sad happens ever so sorry (i literally have a whole timeline in my head like this actually), and SPOILERS FOR THE THUNDERBOLTS* MOVIE AND POST CREDIT SCENE

i think alexei forces everyone to eat together when they can

and everyone will groan but secretly love their little found family and traditions

out of everyone, john is probably the best cook [and ava will burn down the kitchen]

yelena wants to do everyones hair, every day (cause cmon have we seen her hairstyles? she definitely gave bucky the dyson air wrap look)

i imagine they do some sort of trade off thing where each week two people do the grocery shopping

and they all take turns buying bob new books to read (idc its practically canon that he loves to read)

more of a sad one, but i have a feeling that they forced valentina to sound proof the rooms because of nightmares :(

specifically bucky and/or yelena asked bc they've (started to at least) process their own emotions/trauma

okay back to happier shit hehe

i think that not only do they have yelenas guinea pig (which maybe they named cucumber 👀), theres alpine, and another cat that you beg them to let you keep

the cat ends up with you half the time and bob the other half

everyone will just kinda pop by each others rooms to hang out or talk, especially if they haven't seen someone in a while and they're worried

they'll never admit they're concerned, not fully, but you'll know. you'll feel the love

MOVIE NIGHTS

i know these headcanons are practically the avengers towers fics that i read when i was younger but idc, movie nights are so a thing

also alexei wants to start a band but its quickly discarded when you all make the equivalent of that one tiktok sound where the caption is like "put these two in the studio and this is what you get"

another semi sad one but i feel like everyone hides bob away when valentina drops in, and they always have an excuse ready

cause fuck her she's not getting ahold of him again

i feel like one night john, alexei, and bucky would get together and try to test their super soldier serums 💀

you, ava, yelena, and bob will walk out onto a balcony and be like "bucky, why are alexei and john chugging a handle of vodka"

"to see if they can get drunk still"

just dumb shit like that that leaves you all awake until 1 AM talking and laughing

in the summer john taps into his inner patriotic captain america and barbecues (and in my head sambucky divorce isn't happening so sam and torres join <3)

im thinking like fire pit, smores, burgers, whole nine yards

they do it at the compound too so everyone can swim in the lake (again, no divorce, everyone lives in my head 😍😍)

even if not, the watchtower for sure has a pool and a balcony so thats where they end up

this was kinda short, maybe a little mundane, but all i've got for now! i had fun fantasizing about a world where i get to live with the thunderbolts*

[flickering-nightfall]

could you tell us more about the gift? :D

Oh, sure! I can stick some of my Gift drawing backlog in here while I'm at it~

The Gift is an unruly creature whose presence begets chewed wires and headaches wherever it goes. It's spunky and mischievous with a penchant for violence, and it revels in its job: to kill as much rot as it can without getting eaten by it first.

It exists only in an alternate universe where Pebbles is stopped before Moon collapses. Moon is damaged but alive - and after many long talks, Pebbles begrudgingly allows the other iterators to assist him with his rot.

The Gift's campaign uses the points system with an emphasis on rot kills. The gross cyan mixture on its spears is - via interacting with their stomach, in true slugcat fashion - weird altered barf. On contact with targets, "immunospears" explode like a spore puff and damage everything Five Pebbles related within their radius. This means you can kill even Mother Long Legs with good aim and enough food pips. Unfortunately, this does also kill neurons and inspectors, so the Gift has to be a little bit careful on its path of carnage.

Notably, Gift's goal isn't to eradicate the rot, just to help control it. If there's a way to cure the rot, this one silly creature can't do it for a whole superstructure.

It's been specially made (with love and care) by the other iterators so that Pebbles' inspectors don't target it. This is also why Pebbles won't murder it unless it shows direct violence towards him. His local group worked hard on this wretched being and they'll be very upset with him if he kills it. Plus it is actually good at its intended purpose. He just has to count the days until it keels over on its own.

Gift probably has some scavenger in there somewhere too, and maybe a bit of lizard. They're strong, but outside of fighting, I wouldn't say they're the smartest slugcat...

I've also played with the possibility of Arti and Spearmaster existing in this timeline. It ends as well as you'd expect. (I thought it would be funny if you could team up with Spearmaster and piggyback them around as your living spear generator though.)

There's some other stuff to the idea, such as a repeatable campaign where your strength and food requirement goes up every time you replay it, and a random pool of pearls you spawn with addressed to either Moon or Pebbles. I might go ahead and post that old campaign writeup still, so there'll be more in that!

[medullamindset]

Thinking about what Daisuke said to Jimmy Neutron while drunk on mouthwash;

It's clear that Daisuke has some underlying insecurities. Sure hes energetic and remains optimistic even after the crash, a ray of sunshine if you will. But on the inside he seems like a very troubled guy, doubtful in his future. Stuck. He needs someone to affirm him, someone to get it through his thick skull hes good enough.

In other words,

☀️ 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐤𝐞 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫🌙

contains: Established relationship, Daisuke and Reader started dating 3 months into the trip, canonical timeline(?), post-crash, Insecure Daisuke, weirdly philosophical Reader, Daisuke is still hopeful they'll get saved, Reader is a suppressed cynical, Reader's got some issues lowkey; hints at depression and impulsive behaviour, they're literally sun x moon

lol this ended up a little more self indulgent than i anticipated ,')

Wc: 1.6k

Seven months into the trip - two and a half months after the crash.

You peel at the sticker of your barely-drunken mouthwash, peeling, re-sticking, peeling, re-sticking. The minty taste in your mouth near sickening. Your eyes dart from the bottle up to the "sunset" infront of you, The overdone size of it making you squint as you stare into the faux sun. You wonder what the real view might look like from where you are. it's pointless though, the dingy and mechanical hallways and nausiating technology surrounding you in a claustrophobic way, theres no way to know where you really are anymore. where you might end up.

two pokes at your shoulder makes you jump, you scramble to take out your earbuds and pause the music playing from your iPod. You hear Daisuke before you see him.

"Hey, babe! what you listening to?" he asks in a strained tone as he throws his legs over the couch behind you to sit down. You look over at him as he gets comfortable beside you, stretching his legs out and throwing an arm around your shoulder, his closeness softens your gaze more effortlessly than you'd like. you mimick his half-smile, one that always seems to be evident when you're around him these past four months.

"I dunno.. just some old mix." you shrug, both your smiles faltering when Daisuke notices the bottle of mouthwash in your lap.

"Aw man.. You're drinking that stuff too now?" he frowns, taking the bottle from your loose grip to estimate how much you had. Sinking into the couch again when he realized it was practically full still. You just shrug again, feigning nochalance when you speak.

"Figured it's worth a try.. it's not like theres much to do around here anyway." You remark, occupying your hands with his, twisting one of the silver rings around his finger absentmindedly. Daisuke nods faintly in agreement, quirking a brow.

"Guess that's true.." he mumbles, realizing you're right. all he really had with him was dumbbells, a Game Kid, some crappy magazines and a dream. He chucks the mouthwash aside and lets his head drop onto your shoulder. "If i had known i'd be stranded in space for like.. i don't know.. a year? I'd'a brought more stuff to do.." he continues, staring out at the floor similarily to you. "Seven months." you correct, before your attention piques at his words.

"Why'd you even come on this Internship?" you ask out of the blue, glancing down at his swaying foot as you drag a finger over his knuckles. "I told you. My parents made me go." he mumbles, frown deepening.

"yeah, but, nothing says you had to, right?"

"I just.. I didn't wanna dissapoint them any more."

"They're dissapointed in you?"

"pretty much.." He sighs.

"Why?" You don't mean to pry, but this new revelation makes sense to you. what with the way Swansea badmouths him right to his face when Daisuke can't get something right, grumbling insults with a shake of his balding head. causing that pouty crinkle to appear in Daisuke's chin. He had no bussiness being here, even less interest.. his mom forced his hand.

"'Cause i'm a total screw up!.. Y'know? Never was good at anything, just a slacker.. wasting his time." he flails his hand in exclamation, letting it flop back down on his belly, followed by another sigh. "I just don't know what i wanna do in life.. i'm a loser."

"You're not a loser-"

"Yeah i am. You're way outta my league, you know that right?"

"What?" You chuckle dryly, caught off guard by his statement.

"Yeah. You're so in touch with yourself. You have hobbies, dreams, you're insanely creative!.. y'know, talented."

You open your mouth to speak.

"You could do anything. It's your world, i'm just living in it.."

Daisuke expects you to laugh at his pathetic little speech, to find some sort of humour in the way he idolizes your wit. But you close your mouth and remain silent in thought, no-one had ever put themselves below you like that before, called you talented for the bare minimum. It nudged a gear in your brain.

"That doesn't make you a loser, Babe.. You don't know what you want yet and that's fine. You've never been a human before. And besides, you may be my polar opposite and you get on my nerves sometimes but.."

your eyebrows twitch together, causing a thoughtful wrinkle to appear.

"The moon can't shine without the sun, Dai. He reflects on her. Without him it'd be night forever."

Daisuke lets your words sink in. The first three months on the Tulpar you had been.. not sad.. not grumpy, just.. melancholy, quiet. Nearly out-pessimisting Swansea from time to time. Daisuke just barely managed to crack your shell. one time you blew him off with a "Why don't you get out of my hair and stick to your porn mags, Daisuke, okay??" after he had tried to talk to you, which was a major setback in his progress of getting to know you. the saddened expression on his face and the way he jumped to his own defense that they were just comic books made you reform your sentence, simply telling him that it just wasn't the day.. he decided that that was the best he was gonna get and let you be for the rest of the afternoon. Beaming with exitement when you actually spoke to him a week later.

Daisuke's hand over your shoulder interlocks your fingers.

"See what i mean??" he huffs, suddenly trying to make light of the conversation. The faux sunset casting the lounge in an orangey-red suddenly switches to night, the scenery turning a lulling, navy blue. Daisuke sighs when you don't reply.

"Why'd you come on this internship?" He asks, realizing he never really did before, seven months in space and he never even asked.

"Got fired.. And also i just needed a change."

"So you went to space??" he inquires, a light amusement in his tone that makes your own lips quirk.

"Yeah." You huff, goofy smile on your face when Daisuke chuckles. it must sound funny out of context. You try and think of a way to explain it.

"I was just tired. y'know? tired of living in a constant loop. My life isn't bad, but.. i was just getting so tired.. I had to snap back. I'm not sure why i work this way."

"What way?" He presses, glancing down at your unoccupied hand, picking at a hangnail. Daisuke lifts his head off your shoulder at that, trying to see into your gaze which is locked on the digital stars infront of you, little white glimmers reflecting in your eyes. You sigh.

"Sometimes you just need a leap. To do something drastic and dangerous that'll put you in your place.. keeps you humble, y'know? a reminder of your existence. and then you can keep going again."

"I think humans forget too easily that we could die at any moment."

Daisuke listens intently, watching the way your eyelashes flutter against your cheek when you look down into your lap. He hums in some sort of understanding, hesitating before pulling himself closer to you, you tangle your legs with his.

"Never expected this though. We would've died if it wasn't for the foam.. I'm definetly not taking life for granted again if i come home."

"When we come home.." Daisuke assures, tilting his head down to try and meet your gaze. You look up at him, flashing him a tight smile before looking down again, rubbing his hand clasped with yours with your thumb. "And yeah, man. Neither am i.. we only live once i guess."

"We only die once. We live every day." you mumble, resting your head against his chest, Daisuke resting his head on top of yours in a heartbeat. He looks up at the starry screen. "Hope my mom doesn't blame herself. I don't know what im gonna do when i get back to earth.. What's your plan?" He asks softly, tracing circles on your knee with his free hand.

"I dunno, i don't have one. Maybe pick up a lame job at a record store or something. One with a really chill, fat boss in his mid fifties and like,.. no employees exept me, where i get to play whatever music i want and make just enough money to get by.. a quiet life till i find something truly for me." You reckon.

"You should too. Climb the mountain as they say." you then suggest, closing your eyes in the calm atmosphere.

"That sounds nice.. But what if the mountain is like, totally impossible to climb?" Daisuke asks in a desolate tone.

"Nothing is impossible if you just put your mind to it, Babe. It's your lack of drive that's stopping you, get off your ass."

Daisuke takes your words into consideration. Drive. Yeah,.. Okay. Maybe he hadn't really been trying to begin with, you're probably right. You usually are he thinks, sometimes just throwing out these sentences that sound almost shakespeare.

A quiet life till you find something for you.. Truly for you. "I guess theres no point in rushing..?"

"Mh-mhn." You shake your head lightly, agreeing with him. "We all blossom when we're ready, you can't rush fate." You mumble, rubbing Daisukes foot with yours idly.

"Hm.." He hums quietly in acceptance.

"Will you be there?"

"Yeah, Always."

The frown he directs at the ground curls into a small smile,

one that always seems to be evident when you're around him these past four months.

and then they have mind boggling sympathetic sex i dunno

[pillowspace]

Hihi!! Could I have some ISAT fic recs? Hurt/comfort is my fav but anything good is good~ Thank you!

I've read 200 ISAT fics, I'm gonna really have to think on which ones to put

Okay, here's your recs from my 200 fic scroll in no particular order <3 There's so many fics I like that I didn't put here, but I had to be picky about it so I didn't just put down everything I had

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victim of your own creation by dysphoriahighschool

Siffrin has craved blood for as long as they can remember. After so many years of wandering, he's come to Vaugarde in hope of finding answers, just as the King's Curse begins freezing the country in time. He's quickly losing hope, but when they come across a small group determined to save Vaugarde from the King, Siffrin decides to join them. They can't get the answers they want if the country gets frozen in time, after all. They'd never traveled with other people before. Siffrin doesn't expect to grow attached to any of them, but as time goes on, the thought of leaving them hurts more and more. Worse yet, they refuse to even entertain the thought of one of them discovering what he is and what he's done. They just know that if they find out, they'll hate them.

Words: 192,175 | Chapters: 32/?

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Stagger on Backwards by entryn17

[Ha… Ah?]

The fist opens. Hand turns. Fingers twirl. Again. And Again. You watch with mounting horror as your hand moves on its own, the actions becoming more frantic, more jittery, your chest starts to heave, stomach muscles spasming.

(Loop–)

[Stardust–]

They’re in your body. They’re in your body.

⯍

Or, after experiencing hundreds of grueling loops, Siffrin suddenly wakes up 3 months before they even started, on a bed in an infirmary, bandages wrapped tightly around their newly missing eye. Loop is there with them, too.

Words: 15,213 | Chapters: 3/?

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UNCANNY ALL ALONG by entryn17

You can… you can still fix this. If you can just muster up enough want, you, both of you can come back from this.

“You can’t come back from anything! Hundreds of days spent in stasis, in your own personal handcrafted hell, an ice cold inferno – you think you’re the same person you were before you laid down on that meadow?”

✧

Or, trauma changes you, often in ways that leave you unrecognizable to even yourself. Now freshly out of the loops and rough around the edges, Siffrin with the help of their friends has to navigate not being the person they remember.

Words: 33,629 | Chapters: 8/?

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Even in my fantasy, I can't commit to believing by Loafabun

You’re not sure what to think of Loop.

So far, you’ve come to two rather obvious conclusions during your time around them.

1) They’re… a star.

2) You don’t think they like you that much.

Words: 18,275 | Chapters: 3/3

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Human After All by dunkalfredo

Isabeau, freshly recovered from burnout after rushing through graduate school, stumbles across an ad for a lab position at the research institute where his idol, Dr. Odile Yamamoto, conducts her work. Willing to risk another bout of burnout to potentially work with the Dr. Yamamoto, he applies for the position and gets the job. However, in the process of applying, it quickly becomes clear that something sinister is happening at this institute. He decides to go forward and accept the offer—only to find himself in way over his head in a conspiracy far bigger than himself.

(Or: Modern AU/Sci-fi. Isabeau goes back into the world of science after swearing it off only to end up in the Vaugarde equivalent of Area 51 and finds Siffrin, a shapeshifter of unknown origins, trapped deep underground in a padded cell. Unfortunately, he falls in love. Is their romance doomed? Could Siffrin ever escape? What is Siffrin, anyway? And, importantly—how does Odile factor into all of this?)

Words: 33,697 | Chapters: 3/8

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The Funeral of Siffrin No Last Name by Kamary (SERIES of fics about ghost Siffrin)

"Ha, like, cut your ashes in equal parts like a pizza?"

(In a timeline that can not and will not take place, Siffrin dies. Unlike other times, he stays dead. Sort of.)

Words: 18,969 | Works: 3

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Inutile by blueshine

Mirabelle doesn't know what to do. Not with her life, not with her faith, not with her own memory. Why does it feel like she's always forgetting something important?

Mirabelle is the Housemaiden. Isabeau is the Fighter. Odile is the Researcher. Bonnie is the Kid. And that's everyone!

It's raining in Dormont. If clouds cover the stars, are they still there?

Separate Sifloops-

Words: 173,378 | Chapters: 23/34

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What became of you? by goldviola (Note: this one can get dark. I'm including it because I like it, but only read it if you're in that kind of mood)

After the world returned to normal, and everyone was safe and together once again, Isabeau noticed Siffrin's state. He knows they endured far beyond what he could ever hope to understand.

So a vague, earnest wish, mostly symbolic, was made, folded into a star shaped leaf gifted by a little girl.

I wish I could truly understand Siffrin, and always be there to help and love him.

Isabeau had no way of knowing The Universe would listen.

—

Or: Isabeau gets stuck in his own time loop, and does everything in his power to change it.

Words: 27,746 | Chapters: 1/1

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Of Stars and Longing by Raaj

Months after saving Vaugarde together, Isabeau spots Siffrin lingering outside the window of his clothing shop. Naturally, he's excited! The Universe granted his wish!

...It still feels a little bad he had to wish for it, though. And something seems off with Siffrin.

Words: 4,979 | Chapters: 2/2

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The love persists through it all. (The love persists through time.) by Pixxyofice

You are standing in front of a building. Nothing else is around- just a building. The building has a sign above a single door in big letters: TIME LOOP SURVIVORS SUPPORT GROUP. Hanging from that sign is a smaller sign reading Multidimensional!

... What the....

[...]

You let go of the door and look up as it clicks shut behind you.

You see

your family.

---

siffrin meets up with versions of his family who have suffered like he did. is this a blessing or a curse?

Words: 12,015 | Chapters: 1/?

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Follow the stars back home by Loafabun (note: I haven't actually finished this fic, but I'd like to!)

There's an island north of Vaugarde. You were never able to remember its name. So why now? Why after all this time?

It's so close. You can see it now.

You want to go home.

Inspired by a post on Tumblr by @/auncyen!

Words: 77,781 | Chapters: 16/16

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Thank you, kind wizard. For making me a frog. by Spinning_Planet_of_Love

With Siffrin's timelooping journey at an end, he walks away with a LOT of new information and trauma to process. Moving forward is a difficult feat, even with his family by his side.

Mirabelle suggests that, perhaps, keeping a journal to organize these thoughts and communicate his feelings to the others may help, so he decides to give it a try.

-

Contains spoilers for ALL content in ISAT, including achievements and quests dialogue, and eventually the epilogue too.

Words: 74,662 | Chapters: 18/?

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Bleeding in Monochrome by JustSalPals

You're the first one to notice.

(After the events of the game, red stayed in this world of black and white.)

Words: 3,061 | Chapters: 1/1

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And if I were not myself, would this be easier? by rabbit_soup

Siffrin and his party's journey to Bambouche, and how he needs to learn to deal with what happened to him during the loops. Between nightmares, regaining his humanity, and his new-found PTSD, Siffrin is sure he's being a burden to his family. They, however, think otherwise.

Hopefully they'll make it to Bambouche in one piece.

Or

Siffrin is traumatized and his friends love him a whole lot.

Words: 63,086 | Chapters: 13/?

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Natural Satellite by dirtbagtrashcat

After a hundred miserable loops, Siffrin makes a wish. Isabeau gets caught in the crossfire.

(…yes, it’s another Isa Loops AU. but hear me out! rock might beat scissors, but there’s no stone in the cosmos that can resist the gravitational pull of a star.)

Words: 55,043 | Chapters: 14/14

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Bloom by Level99Eevee

After breaking free of the loops, Siffrin is more than ready to move on and enjoy life again. They’re with their family—their friends—for another journey, one without the King’s Curse nipping at their heels, and everyone will be together for the foreseeable future. So Siffrin is fine. Great, even! The others don’t need to know that the aftermath of their experience in Dormont still hangs heavy as a noose around their neck.

They just need to get over it.

-

Or: Siffrin has trauma, learning to open up is a process, and the others realize the loops left deeper scars than previously thought.

Words: 41,445 | Chapters: 7/7

To Cut You Open With a Knife and Find Your Sacred Heart by Hexea_Art

They didn't know how they remembered but they both knew that there are legends about these fae doppelgangers, that they wish for nothing more than to steal the heart of the person whose face they stole, for power, for acceptance, to trick more people, to lessen how uncanny they could be.

Either way, it's a death wish to be around someone who shares the same face.

So of course Siffrin and Loop decided to travel together.

(Aka an ISAT changeling AU)

Words: 73,358 | Chapters: 19/21

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raconte-moi qu’on puisse crier tout bas by bibliomaniac

After everything, Loop is struggling to find their place in the world. Siffrin is struggling to adjust to life outside the loops. Isabeau is struggling to balance his love for Siffrin with his need to keep them safe, alongside his own worries about Changing. Politely, things could be better!

But when Loop joins the party on their journey, things tilt even more drastically off course. They'll all need to reconcile their past with their present growing feelings and with the future they're beginning to want. Maybe they'll even do it, too.

It will just blinding suck along the way.

Words: 100,632 | Chapters: 17/?

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ghostlight by Kittenixie

ghostlight - a single lamp placed on stage to keep the theatre from being in total darkness after everyone’s gone.

After trying and failing to kill Siffrin to take his place, Loop tries to disappear. Siffrin makes them stay. They figure things out together.

Staying with Siffrin's party in Dormont's House of Change, Loop starts down the long, winding path towards recovery, carefully trying to navigate the complicated knot of trauma and grief that the loops have left behind.

Words: 86,075 | Chapters: 24/24

Sequel is back to one | Words: 71,525 | Chapters: 14/?

[sephiquehearts]

bonten timeline maisan (mikey x sanzu) x reader smut.. hear me out.......... specifically haruchiyo eating user out bcuz mikey ordered him to, even though reader is mikey's wife? PLEASE PLEASEPLEPALSPELPLALSPLSPLEPSLPL i beg on my hands and knees........

It's been so long since I last wrote smut, it didn't even meet my expectations but it's still better than I thought it would be

It was quite the unusual request, both you and Sanzu had to look at each other after hearing Mikey's words

"I feel like having my own private show today, so Sanzu, put her over that table and have a taste, maybe I'll even learn a thing or two, I'm sure you're very good at this"

So that leads to where you are now, sitting at the table, legs spread with no clothes and Sanzu kneeling down right in front of your cunt

"You really sure about this?" He asked Mikey again, not wanting to screw things up with him, he definitely didn't wanted to do something that would end on Mikey wanting to kill him later

"Are you perhaps afraid of not doing a good job?" He raised a brown with tease in his voice, making Sanzu roll his eyes

Mikey was sitting at his chair, his eyes fixed on the view in front of him. But mostly, he was focused on you, watching your curious face look at Sanzu, waiting for what would come next

He couldn't hold himself, Mikey got up from his chair and walked over you two, just to stand by your side and cover your eyes with his hands

"It's no fun if you get to see what's happening" He looked around, ending up just getting your own shirt to cover your eyes before returning to his seat

"Are you going to start or do I have to help you too?" He asked to Sanzu who seemed to shiver with that

The pink haired boy looked up, your lips parted with heavy breaths in anticipation, and so he started

He didn't went straight to where you were hoping him to go, no, he started with slow, sloppy kisses at your tummy, hands on your hips, eyes fixed on your face

His kissed right under your breasts, lowering to your navel, his fingers teasingly caressing your inner thighs, but never getting to close to your cunt

You were already so sensitive, so responsive to his every touch, maybe it was the shirt covering your eyes, but god every kiss and caress seemed like such a sweet torture

Mikey on the other hand watched it all with a neutral expression, his eyes so fixed on what was happening, his dark, lustful gaze almost burning both you and Sanzu

Sanzu looked at Mikey for a moment, making sure he was still okay with all of this, before slowly dragging his fingers to your lower lips, parting them to get a better view, almost salivating just by that

"Isn't she pretty?" Mikey suddenly asked "I bet she might be soaking wet already" His voice was enough to make you moan

"Mhm, she sure is" Sanzu replied, using one of his hands to keep your legs open, the other one being used to explore your sex, like it was just a new toy he was testing, seeing if it was really good

"She's sensitive like that, it's so easy to get her like this"

"You sure are lucky to have such a cute girl like that. Fuck, I could get two fingers here easily by his wet she is"

"I don't doubt that, but instead of only imagining, you should try it don't you think?"

Oh god, they are literally just having a normal conversation about that while you're there silently begging to be given attention?

"That would be too easy, it's better to work them up, don't you agree?" Sanzu talked again, his fingers pinching on your clit, making you scream and arch your back

"Sure thing" Mikey replied, watching his Sanzu moved a bit to the side just to let him see it better, and Mikey didn't wait a second to move the chair closer to you

Sanzu let go of you, getting back to those kisses, making you whine in desperation, your hips moving forward while you silently begged to be filled by something, getting a chuckle out of them both

"See, work them up so they'll be desperate by each passing second" Sanzu looked at Mikey again, who finally got up from his chair to again move closer to you, but you didn't even noticed that until you felt a string of pain right at you cunt, flinching your body and screaming in surprise

Even Sanzu was a bit surprised by that, but he was smiling, both in shock and interesting

"What? I trained my girl very well, she's not some porcelain doll that you have to be careful with" Another slap, and another one, until it became a whole series of smacks one before the other

Your body shaked, your head was falling back and your mouth opened to scream in a way other would probably hear it, but none of you cared about that now

"Please..." You said something finally, almost a whisper "N-no more... I want you... want you b-both, please Mikey, please Sanzu"

They both looked at each other before leaning down to you, one on each side, whispering to your ear

"Awwn, sweet girl is already begging for us"

"Don't worry babe, we'll take very good care of you"

Just a look, it was all they had to do, and it was like they had a whole conversation in their minds, already knowing exactly what to do

Sanzu helped you move while Mikey undid his belt, throwing it somewhere on the floor and letting his clothes fall to it as well

You were left confused for a moment, breathing shakingly in anticipation, screaming and arching your back with the sudden feeling of a tongue on your already sensitive clit

Sanzu used one of his hands to hold your hips and keep you in place, while the other teased your entrance, doing exactly as Mikey said before, shoving two fingers inside you and taking no time to fuck them inside you while his tongue tortured you

He had your legs shaking in less than a minute, and just when you were about to say something, there was something touching you lips

"Be a good girl and suck it for me hm" You heard Mikey's voice and took no second to obey, opening you mouth and sticking you tongue out, just to have him moving his hips and roughly fucking your throat

Abruptly, the shirt was taken away from you eyes, and the view of Mikey looking down at you made you roll your eyes and moan on his dick

"Fuck... such a good girl aren't you? Taking both of us so well, I should do this more times don't you agree?" His hand grabbed your hair to help you move, his own hips getting a brutal pace that made you tear up

Sanzu also wasn't holding back on you, licking and sucking on you clit in a way that made you see stars, while his fingers curled inside you so fucking good

You looked yo at Mikey with tears on your eyes, a view that made him grin in satisfaction, especially when you screamed on his cock after Sanzu hit that sweet spot inside of you

"Sounds like I found done treasure here" Sanzu moved his fingers to hit harder on that spot, making you roll your eyes and scream his name at Mikey's cock

It didn't took long for you to start feeling that familiar thing "You coming sweet girl?" Sanzu was the one to ask, doubling his efforts to make you feel good

"That took you longer than I anticipated, though you would be melting in the first seconds" Mikey chuckled "Be a good girl them and cum for us, show how much you like being a cock drunk slut"

And it took no second for you to do it, spilling your juices all over Sanzu's face and fingers

He licked you clean, careful not to overstimulate you too much, he still had more to do with you

"Fuck... Mikey I'm fucking her now" He warned before unfuing his belt, to which Mikey agreed while looking down at you

"It'll be a long night, you better get ready for it all sweet girl" You rolled your eyes again, feeling Sanzu burry himself inside you

When Mikey requested Sanzu to have you in front of him, at first you didn't though it was a good idea, but now, being stuffed so fucking good by them, oh this was definitely the best idea ever

You sure had to do that again some other day, because having those two man chatting about you while fucking you numb was something you had to be a part of again

[phantosss]

some changes i would have made to the characters storylines in tua s4

disclaimer: i am no writer, it's just fun to think about the possibilities. btw anyone feel free to use any of these ideas for fics idc

lila doesn't cheat for starters. instead she and diego have both been secretly doing vigilante missions and keeping it from the other because they think they'll be mad. on one of these missions the two run into each other and rekindle their spark. basically the five and lila story but with diego and lila instead thanks. maybe one or both of them almost die or their kids are put in danger, and they decide to find a much less dangerous hobby, because while its thrilling in the moment they realize they wouldn't sacrifice their family for it

luther is shown to be much more depressed about sloanes absence (if there really is no way for her to come back) but he's trying to hold it together to be there for his family. would be nice if he bonded with characters like klaus, viktor or allison who have also lost their lovers. diego and lila shenanigans means they need luther to babysit a lot and luther finds happiness caring for his nieces and nephew. maybe he also finds a fulfilling job where he can meet a lot of people and help others.

five still finds the time subway but without lila. we get more time exploring the alternate timelines and seeing different ways the apocalypse has happened including ways the other sibs have ended the world. his PTSD and reliving his trauma is also explored. he eventually ends up in the five diner where he's told that they end the world every time but instead of excepting defeat and making everyone sacrifice themselves he finds another way (what exactly that is im not so sure) and becomes the first and only five to successfully prevent the apocalypse forever

allisons relationship with claire and ray are explored more heavily as well as everything she did in s3. i like the idea that she takes care of klaus because 1: hes the only sibling that will still talk to her and 2: because of the guilt she feels after getting him killed. i just wish her arc focused on something OTHER than saving klaus because thats basically all she did this season. would be nice if she spent more time with viktor and luther the two people she wronged most heavily in s3.

i would keep viktors confrontation with reggie but alternatively i would make this reginald umbrella reginald so it has much more weight to it. either that or have viktor express that even though he said his piece toward this reggie he will never actually get closure with their real father and nothing will remove the pain from his childhood. the rest i would keep pretty similar. reginald wants to kill ben and viktor wants to stop him at any cost. viktor knows what its like to be "the bomb" and doesn't want the same thing that happened to him to happen to ben. instead of working together to find ben however they're more in a race against eachother. maybe allison joins him and they make up on the way. i would have liked for ben and viktor to have had a heart to heart in the beginning of the season, maybe about how ben felt like a monster sometimes because of his powers, and viktor relating. idk how this would work with sparrow ben because he doesn't seem to hate his powers the same way brelly ben did but it would have been nice to show another reason why viktor is going through so much trouble to save him. and the ending where he trys to talk him down would be more impactful i think.

for klaus i would keep everything pretty much the same up until he runs into that quinn guy. instead i would have him travel to the subway with five in lilas place. five and klaus' powers are the most mind boggling out of the bunch not to mention time and death are inherently intertwined and this needed to be explored. also, you're telling me klaus literally has the power to talk to GOD and this never has any plot relevance???? klaus should have been involved in finding the solution to the apocalypse imo. also we needed klaus and ben interactions. idk how or when but it NEEDED to happen

ben and jennifer being the catalyst for the apocalypse is making it very hard for me to figure what to do with him tbh. i just wish he had more time with the other sibs and didn't turn into a horrific blob monster at the end 😭he felt less like a character this season and more like a plot device and he deserved to have some scenes that actually fleshed him out. it would have been cool if the reason he causes the apocalypse was actually because of his powers and not just because he happened to be the one to make skin contact with jennifer. i really thought that the twist was gonna be that the squid that jennifer was stuck in was the one that ben summons and that was why they were connected. not the fact that they both just had reactive magic particles in them that anyone could have set off. like what if jennifer being cut out of the squid was what killed ben?

OH! what if jennifer was an eldritch horror from the same dimension that bens tentacles are from and for some reason she wants to kill the brellys/end the world and because bens powers are linked to her she can control his mind ???? c'mon i feel like i've got something here

a have a couple of other ideas but don't know where they would fit in rn so yeah.

[kazutora-kurokawa]

Poly Relationship w/ Baji, Chifuyu, and Kazutora

♡ SFW, pure fluff, fem reader, set in a timeline where Baji, Tora, and Fuyu own a petshop ♡

note: This was requested by @mirai-006, hope you enjoy 🩷 btw I separated the headcanons into sections because I kept having different ideas lol

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General HCs

💞 When you started working at the petshop, you weren't expecting to end up in a relationship with the owner, let alone all three of them

💞 Everyday is different with these idiots, I swear they share a singular brain cell

💞 They all have different love languages, so you end up with a lot of presents, food, and cuddles

💞 Expect stray cats to be brought home every week

💞 You and Kazutora feel like babysitters a lot of the time because Baji is wild and Chifuyu goes along with everything he says

💞 Kazutora is the clingiest and also the quietest

💞 Baji is for sure the loudest, he'll yell at the top of the lungs even when you're in the same room

💞 Chifuyu is the mediator, he likes to keep things peaceful but usually ends up arguing with Baji about something stupid

💞 You and Chifuyu take turns doing Kazutora and Baji's hair (wash day takes forever, not to mention having to re-dye Kazutora's hair)

💞 Baji says the dumbest shit ever and you all just look at him like huh? (Chifuyu tries to rationalize what he's saying but it never works 😭)

Motorcycle Rides

💞 You're the biggest passenger princess in the whole world

💞 They'll argue over who gets to drive you around and end up settling the disagreement by playing rock paper scissors (Baji always wins lol)

Movie Nights

💞 You take turns deciding what to watch

💞 If you end up watching a horror movie Fuyu and Tora will scream and accidentally toss popcorn on you and Baji

💞 Chifuyu loves romance movies, but Baji doesn't because they make him cry, especially if it's unrequited love

Cuddling

💞 Kazutora loves being little spoon, bonus points if you run your fingers through his hair

💞 Chifuyu is fine with being big or little spoon, he likes laying on your chest and listening to your heartbeat

💞 Baji is so hyperactive, he probably can't even hold still long enough to cuddle lol

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Taglist

@arlerts-angel @i-literally-cant-with-this @trevengersprincess @giugiette @katkitkats @happy-trenchcoated-impala @rinsprttyg @drunkcheesecake @darkstarlight82 @reiners-milkbiddies

[haylessa]

Bridge to the Turnabout

man do i feel like crying finishing this game.

the way they connected so many past cases to this final one is amazing. seems like everything connects to the DL-6 incident somehow lol. how Misty Fey failed her channeling on that case, Miles's phobia of earthquakes, leading all up to him losing sight of the suspect, which then made a chance for them to swap places with a twin. wow they truly planned this ahead didn't they.

playing as Miles!!! that was really entertaining. his inner monologues are hilarious. he flew all the way to Japan just because of Phoenix okay??? totally normal about this. and Franziska also flew from Germany just to have a chance at battling(?) Phoenix again (not surprised).

not them being in cahoots fooling the judge that Miles is a defense attorney HAHAH yeah siblings. loveee how they both ended up helping Phoenix big time in this case. like "eh since I flew all the way here why not" Franziska showing her kindness albeit being all snarky about it haha who are you fooling you're just a softie inside.

aww are you worried? she just randomly decided to follow Phoenix around welp that's cute... argh i love her she's so precious, they'll never make me hate you Franziska von karma<3

okay first time i saw him my first thoughts was that he's a relative of Diego. not being Diego himself. damn i thought he actually came from the depths of hell. as in like, zombies. there's spirit channeling, so another weird thing would be totally normal right? i was wrong.

people in this game hop jobs like hopscotch from lawyers to prosecutors to detectives (talking about lana) it's so unserious (i love it).

tbh this case was quite confusing even when there's all sorts of evidence. it would be very helpful if they explained the whole timeline of the murder in order at the end. because with all the channeling it was confusing who's body is who and where everyone actually is, or was that again, just me? they said Iris betrayed Dahlia when she planned the fake kidnapping? or when she killed her stepsister? or both? how did she betray her, i mean how exactly did she run away??

Godot said he contacted Misty and Iris. so Misty and Iris were in cahoots right? so she lied that she didn't know Elise was Misty then. god so many questions i should open up wiki later.

their story was such a tragedy:( and Maya oh Maya....... she probably only figured out Elise was her mom after she got killed right in front of he. but she had to be strong for Pearl. my poor little girls....i wanna hug them so bad. this whole fiasco is very fucked up. also did Misty refuse Maya to help cook because she might find out it's her mom?

Maya probably held deep in her heart on the fact that her mom, although missing, is still alive out there somewhere. and now... she's really gone.

i'm glad she's got a home with Pearl and Phoenix now. there's also Detective Gumshoe, Edgeworth, Franziska, and all the friends they made along the way who'll always look out for her. I wish we could see Maya and Franziska slowly becoming friends, they're nineteen! they should be at the club!!

this pic of little Mia and Maya is so cute:((( busted breaking the sacred urn even before Pearl did. and no one said a thing looking at it����

i'm gonna miss them all so much... i haven't played the other games (yet) but i'm pretty sure nothing can top the original trilogy. quirky characters with personalities, unmatched goofiness, emotional sibling bonds, and overall a really really good story. it will stay with me forever<3

[thistlerock]

Hmmm okay I sat on it for half a day and have decided that the things I DONT like abt fantasy high webtoon so far aren't just me being a bitter fan of the og highly critical of an adaptation. It's still a little bit that though, so take this with a grain of salt.

- I have no problem with Riz being the main focus so far (I do think it makes a continuous plot easier to follow) but I really do hope we get more on the others. And I REALLY hope that the girls get actual attention on their backgrounds and characters? Idk, Gorgug and Fabian didn't get as much as Riz either but they got way more than the girls, especially Fig, and I will always be a little annoyed when male characters get more attention in action and/or fantasy stories. This is my biggest issue and the only one that I genuinely think could turn into an "okay no this is where the adaption is bad". Like, I'm gonna assume they either get flashbacks or new moments in the next few chapters (again I only read the free ones so far) but still. Arghfj.

- Kristen coins their party name by telling Daybreak she wants to hang with the Bad Kids. Since they'll all end up in detention eventually I'm sure we'll still get there and I'm not completely opposed to change but that is a pretty iconic line to leave out. I think if they get the name by someone else referring to them as such or if Kristen says it later that still works but y'know.

- I understand that a comic has to spoon feed the reader lore because Brennan can't just do it, lmao, but it does feel slightly out of character for the Riz we know to need explanations on how Agueford operates. Like, he would have done extensive research on it. This is very much an alternate universe/parallel timeline with minor differences situation and in this version Penny's only been missing for a week so he had less time to do research, yeah, but still. I don't think this is an inherent flaw and I do expect these Bad Kids to be slightly different than their counterparts, but yeah that bothered me a little bit.

- Riz's whole deal visually. I both love it because he's so cute and it's working on me exactly as intended and I'm also kinda mad that it's working. And I'm kind of mad at the fact it's a thing. He's a creature, he's a gross little guy. Yes the fanon portrayals of him are way more creature-ish than canon ones, but he is NOT cute even in canon. Look at his freshman year art and then look at this guy, insane difference. I get why they did that. And it works. It works SO well. Penelope's reaction to him suddenly makes perfect sense to me. This makes me so conflicted lmao. I understand that this an alternate version of him and not SUPPOSED to be the exact same but I don't think I'm gonna get over it, which is fine. Doesn't mean I'm not collecting screenshots of cute Riz. He really is squishable.

- Unless I misunderstood Fabian wasn't present when Ragh threw Riz! How will he The Ball him now? It's pretty easy to establish it either way (other people could call him that, especially on the Bloodrush team which Fabian will presumably try out for) but if it ends up not being Fabian that fully establishes Riz as The Ball (because let's be real, regardless of how persistent Ragh is, if Fabian didn't repeatedly call him that it would not have become his thing.) then I genuinely think that takes away from why their dynamic is fun! I am waiting with baited breath

- this is a minor thing but I wish Kristen wore shorts,,,like short overalls,,,,,,I FULLY understand why they didn't put her in tie dye I wouldn't wish repeatedly drawing that upon my worst enemy, and the corn coding IS pretty fun, and they DID keep her awful sandals. But shorts,,,,,my girl needs shorts for her summer camp fit,,,,

I do still find the webtoon enjoyable so far. I think liking adaptations of media you love is actually really hard because it'll almost never do it "right", but you kinda have to distance them from each other and go "okay this is the thing I like but from a different angle and that's okay, and I might be bothered by a lot of changes but that doesn't inherently make it bad". (Extreme example of this for me is death note. As an adaptation of the anime/manga the live action movie sucked ass, if you forget all about that it's a pretty good movie?? Obviously in the case of fantasy high the two are a LOT closer and this isn't a good comparison, but death note has taught me to at least try to view adaptations positively even if my first instinct is to be upset.) Idk, if they're the exact same then what's the point of adapting it.

So far I think it's a competent work, if flawed in some ways; the art is cute and some of the jokes (even the new ones) made me chuckle. The first 3 chapters were nice, I think this can be a fun thing to relive freshman year through and if it brings in even one fan that doesn't wanna watch two hour recordings of people sitting at a table rolling dice (fair) then that's really great! I'm curious to see the rest, but if they continue like this and give the girls their spotlight then I think it'll be pretty cool even if I'll always prefer the original

[sorasan000]

Thoughts as someone caught up to ch.1130 in regards to how the subject of pregnancy has been incorporated into the worldbuilding.

Turning does something interesting with the omegaverse genre, and that is that it makes conception, viable pregnancies, and healthy offspring extremely difficult for Awakeners, and especially alpha and omega Awakeners. There's a small window where fertility is at its best point, and even then it's difficult to conceive. In the event that conception happens, a pregnancy rarely makes it to the end. In the even rarer case where a child is successfully born, Yudrein never came across a case where they lived past the age of 3.

It's really funny for the genre, but the story presents it as a mystery that needs an explanation for a while. It gives subtle clues, like a broken vessel leading to infertility. Mage apprentices referring to their masters as "Spiritual Parents."

It isn't until more than 1000 chapters in that it's revealed that when mages first appeared they ALSO had difficulties having children. They, instead, adopted a master-disciple culture where the master took on the "parent" role.

It casually drops the lore that it's "commonly believed that the amount of mana in one's body affects fertility." When a vessel is "broken" the power is left unchecked. The mana core organ is located beneath the navel, close to where one's testes or ovaries and uterus are. Heat leave people with far less control over themselves and their energies than they usually do. It all starts to make sense.

When Kishiar was nearing his heat, he started studying up on the Apeto experiments. More out of fear and anxiety than anything else, but after pondering on that Yuder actually showed interested in perhaps finding a way for people who want to have children to have them and keep them in their lives. Because at this rate, people really have no control over whether they'll awaken or not.

This sets the stage for them to start searching for those means, under the "for the Awakeners' sake" excuse. I think solutions they're looking for have already been sprinkled throughout the story.

Penpen's processes of ingesting and expelling energy is currently being studied by Hellem, and Yuder once wondered if it could help Kishiar with his vessel problems. Could help with overall mana levels, too.

The Awakener Power Suppression inventions made by Alik could provide a future answer. They work well for Marty, who is now an Awakener along with Robel. If they decide to have children in the future, they might be an early case study on their effectiveness. In the 1st timeline these suppression devices were used more for subduing criminals, and I doubt they were used for casual everyday use. So Yudrein wouldn't have observed them that way.

There are cases of mages having children, and they might have clues, too. Hellem, if she didn't adopt, had a child. The First Emperor and Empress, one wielding great Aura and Divine Power and the other being a mage, managed to have five children.

The little sprinkled clues still don't make a KishiYu pregnancy seem easy, even if anything is discovered.

Kishiar's vessel is in a state that I have dubbed "Schrodinger's Broken Vessel" because Kishiar is still not quite sure what the hell's going on with his. He figures that because he still goes through "cycles" even after awakening that his body's still having problems with stray powers going haywire. However, he has no idea how the Awakener protection of his vessel affects his fertility.

Meanwhile, Yuder's so powerful that Alik hasn't been able to invent a device strong enough to suppress him. Doesn't mean he won't, since Alik's inventions are notably getting stronger after each prototype.

Plus, there's the fact that Yuder now has some pretty interesting imagery going on with his body. When the power of the Red Stone reached his mana core, it began to pulsate and expand from that area. Imagining it, we know that that's the area of the mana core, but visually it reminds me of those succubus womb things. Like, I'm sitting there reading it, and going in with an omegaverse brain I'm like, "Kuyu, what is that? Kuyu, answer me."

Still, Yuder has never thought about it, and Kishiar has so many reservations in regards to having biological children of his own that the "will they, won't they?" strongly leans in the "won't" way. Things can change as things develop, but the Awakener protection + Red Stone powers just piles on one unlikelihood after the other.

[ageless-aislynn]

Title: “15 Minutes” (11/15) Author:  @ageless-aislynn​ Characters/fandom: Master Chief John-117/Reader, Halo the series Summary: John has learned something new that he'd like to show you… Series: How to date a Spartan (without even trying) Rating:  T (PG13) Length: 2,630 (this chapter, 27,487 total so far) Spoilers: Set in the Silver Timeline of Halo the series, not the games or novels. Though we began with the events of Halo 1x06, there will be no more show spoilers. We are still firmly seated in the AU Warthog, merrily driving out to places where there’s only a passing nod to canon. 😉 Disclaimer: Definitely not mine but I do enjoy borrowing them just for a bit! 😉 A/N:  Text is both here in this post or available at AO3, however you like to read. It's, yet again, been awhile since the last update, sad to say. I've been slogging through writer's block, health issues and some kinda awful real life stress but I'm not giving up on this fic (or its sibling, "Recreation"). I'd like to say that the final chapters will be here very soon but, well… I've learned to not call my shots, lol. I will, however, do my best to get them here as soon as I can. If you read, I hope you enjoy! ⭐💖⭐

Taglist: @pinheadbanger​ @mysardencut​ @laurenstacy610​ @sporadicbelievernightmare​ @ultrablackwidower​ @bxmxtx​ @jellotherelol @mirandastuckinthe80s

If you would like to be tagged in my John/Reader fics, just let me know! I also write John/Kai, John/Cortana and Kai/male Reader, so I’m glad to tag you for whatever you’d like. If you would like to be removed from the taglist, also feel free to let me know, no harm, no foul. 😉 💖

Halo fic masterlist ⭐

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10

PT arrived bright and early and, while you continued to bring out every expletive in every language you knew, ultimately it seemed your left side was improving: more range of motion in your shoulder and more strength in your leg, though the healing fractures still ached. All together, though, it was a win, no matter that it left you sweating and shaking like you'd wrestled an Elite and lost spectacularly.

You'd just come out of the shower and put on a fresh set of clothes when the door chimed. To your surprise, you found Riz and Vannak in their civvies standing there. You knew Silver Team had been on stand-by for the past few days – John hadn't been able to join you for every meal, understandably, but he had been there every night. Sleeping curled up in his arms was a luxury you weren't sure how you were going to give up when the time came. Kai and her friend had visited but this was the first time the other two Spartans had.

"Please, come in," you said and they did.

"You need new curse words," Riz said seriously.

"We got here while you were doing your therapy," Vannak explained. "Didn't want to interrupt."

"You could hear me cussing out in the hall?" you asked.

"Superior Spartan hearing," she said, matter-of-fact. "I doubt anyone else could."

"Teach her the one," he urged in as animated a tone as you'd ever heard from him before. "You know, the good one."

Which is how you ended up getting a tongue-twisting word in Sangheili added to your arsenal.

"You say that to any Covenant species and it's guaranteed to send them into a rage," Riz said with a confident nod.

"Except the Unggoy," Vannak added with a sneer. "Little bastards couldn't give a shit. They'll try to kill you on principle."

"I'll make sure I'm on a bullhorn from far away, then," you said, biting the inside of your lip to keep from grinning. "Don't want to be in striking distance if I'm going to send them into a rage."

They thought that over.

"Chief won't appreciate us telling her to pick a fight with a Sangheili," she pointed out.

"Just use it on somebody you're pretty sure you can take in a fight," he told you.

"I'll keep that in mind," you said.

They made slightly stilted small talk for about 15 more minutes, then took their leave.

A rest seemed in order, so you propped up on the bed and checked the news. They were in the middle of reporting that they had yet to apprehend the man who had tried to smuggle the bomb back to FLEETCOM in the Warthog. It showed some stock images of the Pit before being damaged by the explosion and that got you to thinking…

There should be some sort of footage of the explosion, right?

But, after poking around on your padd for a little while, you hadn't found much beyond what apparently had been approved for public viewing.

"Would you like some help with that?"

Cortana's voice startled you.

"Oh, hey there," you said, thinking, Poor thing, she's got the most boring job in the world keeping an eye on me. I hope I get the chance to buy her a coffee or something after all is said and done. Then your brain tardily caught up with her words. "You mean you have footage from the explosion?"

"Yes, I do."

"And it's something I have clearance to see?"

"I have footage from the explosion," she repeated, her tone supremely innocent.

Before you could decide whether to ask to see it or not, the holo on the wall lit up. The security cams had caught the explosion from multiple angles. You winced as you saw a body – your body – fly out of the crane operator seat to disappear into a sea of smoke and debris.

A moment later, the view changed, the quality severely degrading. You squinted through the pixilation and haze and realized you were seeing from the point of view of the holo-emiter Cortana had contacted you from.

"Oh, shit," you muttered. The massive beam that had pinned you down should've killed you outright but you'd gotten supremely lucky in the way the rest of the building had fallen, providing just enough support to give you a tiny open space. But even without the sudden, helpful overlay that detailed out the edges of the debris through the smoke, you could see how quickly that respite was vanishing as the beam's weight bore it inexorably lower and lower.

You found yourself gasping for breath, cast back into that moment. The image changed abruptly. Trying to figure out where you were now viewing from helped to break you free of the encroaching panic attack.

Then it all made sense: you were looking at several officers, so covered in dirt and dust that you couldn't recognize their rank, much less determine their names. They also looked extremely short.

Before you even skimmed over the information feeding out in rapid-fire bursts, you knew that this was John's HUD after Silver Team had arrived back on site.

"John, get here now. The support beam is failing!"

Cortana's voice came through his helmet's comm. "There's no time," he said, interrupting the man as he was saying that they would have to wait for an excavation crew to arrive to safely dig you out.

He was running before the man could object. The feed cut back and forth from his HUD to the holo-emiter. This gave you an unexpected perspective on how efficiently Silver Team worked. They needed almost no words as they homed in on your location, grabbing, lifting, moving and supporting each part of the perilous structure as needed.

It was Vannak who caught the beam before it crushed you but it was John who lifted it off of you.

The holo-emiter's feed abruptly ended and you were back in John's HUD. Vannak and Kai caught another part of the crumbling wreckage, creating an opening for Riz to dig you out by hand.

You noted almost absently how steady John's vitals were. He was holding a building off of you as if it were nothing at all.

"Out," Riz announced and John carefully lowered the weight he'd been supporting.

When he turned, you saw Riz clearing the way for Kai, who was now the one carrying you. Vannak and John followed.

They emerged out of the wreckage and Kai went into the Spartan run, taking you directly into a Pelican where she turned you over to a team of medics. The Spartans were waved back and the ship launched.

"We'll catch the next one," Riz said.

"She'll be all right, Chief," Kai told him. "She's strong."

He nodded curtly, tracking the Pelican that was carrying you away.

And once it went out of sight, that was when his vitals spiked and his heart began to pound.

You were still thinking about what all you'd seen when the door chimed again. A glance at the chrono proved it was lunchtime. You opened the door and, indeed, the first thing you saw was a massive, covered tray that no doubt contained your meal. But it was John who was carrying it.

"Silver's on stand-by," he warned, "but I thought we might get a chance to eat together."

Since you weren't yet cleared to make the long walk down to the Mess, a table and pair of chairs had been set up across from the couch a few days ago. As soon as he'd placed the tray down, you practically tackled him.

"Permission to hug the Master Chief?" you asked well after the fact, your voice muffled into his chest.

He gently returned the embrace. "Always granted."

You found yourself holding onto him a little bit longer than usual.

"You okay?" he asked.

"I saw the footage from the Pit," you said, resting your cheek against him. "I already knew I was lucky to get out of there but really seeing it? I… It makes me appreciate being here."

He paused for long enough that you looked up at him, finding him gazing over your head as if hearing something over a comm. Then he turned his attention back down to you, brow furrowing. "She shouldn't have shown you that footage and upset you."

"Cortana? No, I'm glad she did. It happened to me, after all." You put your face against him again and squeezed him once more around his waist. "You held a building off of me, John."

He made a move as if about to pick you up, then thought better of it and knelt instead to bring you more on a level together. "I'd hold a million buildings off of you, don't you know that?" he said, cupping your face. "Just… try not to be under any more falling buildings, hm?"

"I'll certainly do my best," you swore and kissed his palm.

The look in his eyes altered, grew both darker and softer at the same time. When you leaned towards him, he met you halfway.

He started carefully, like he did everything with you, but soon the kiss intensified, deepened, and his hands skimmed from the crown of your head down your back as if he wanted to map every line, curve and angle you possessed.

And then your stomach growled, loudly and unmistakably, and you muttered your newly-learned curse word.

He leaned back to look at you, amusement tugging insistently at his mouth. "That one's Vannak's favorite. He and Riz talked about coming to see you today. I'm assuming they did?"

"They did," you said, then winced as your stomach grumbled something awfully close to a repeat of the Sangheili curse word.

"Why don't we eat," he said, completely surrendering to the smile, "and you can tell me all about it."

Happily, he didn't get called away and you were able to finish your meal together in peace.

"Could I show you something I recently learned?" he asked as you stood from the table.

"As long as it doesn't involve throwing me around the room," you teased.

"Oh, I'll save that until you're all healed up," he murmured, then winked.

You'd like to think you laughed but no, that was a full-fledged giggle. "So, what did you learn?"

"Therapeutic massage," he said, flexing his fingers. "It's supposed to promote healing and relaxation. Want to give it a try?"

"Absolutely," you said. "Where do you want me at?"

"On the footstool, if that's okay?"

"Sure."

The wide, plush, rainbow-colored bit of furniture was another recent addition to the room, added because John wanted you to have the option to put your feet up. Kai had told you that, as soon as you were healthy again, she was going to high-five you for the color choice.

While his back was turned as he adjusted the stool the way he wanted it in front of the couch, you took your shirt off and tossed it haphazardly towards the bed.

He sat, a leg on either side of the stool, and looked up at you, clearly about to say something. But then his expression went thunderstruck and the words never emerged.

You had the same UNSC sports bra that he had to have seen other marines wearing in the gym a thousand times. You'd spotted Kai and Riz in them before, so it shouldn't have been that shocking.

"This all right?" you asked.

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Yes." Every affirmative had its own completely separate inflection, from stunned to wonderment to Wait, don't put the shirt back on.

You turned away, hiding your grin as you sat down where directed. Considering that you were hardly in top fighting form at the moment, his reaction was a very nice little ego boost.

His hands settled gently against your back, fingers curling over your shoulders. "If I use too much pressure or there's pain, tell me right away. Is there anything I should definitely avoid?"

"Can't raise the arm like I should" –you gave a roll of your left shoulder– "but it's already much better than it was."

"Copy that, no raising the arm. Anything else?"

No matter how battered and bruised you felt, there was no way you were going to miss this. "I'll let you know," you promised.

"Okay," he said and his hands glided up to your neck, then out, following the lines of the trapezius on both sides. The heels of his palms followed your spine down in a feathery touch, then spread out along your lats like he was smoothing wrinkles out of them before skimming down your obliques to your hips.

He returned to your shoulders again and very, very carefully kneaded into the tightness there. You did your best not to flinch when he hit a particularly sore spot but he jerked back as if you'd screamed.

"It's fine," you said quickly, afraid he was about to end up perched on the back of the couch like a very large, traumatized cat. "This is the only way to get rid of it. Just got to work it out."

His hands settled cautiously on your shoulders once more.

"You're doing great," you assured him, patting his knees on either side of you encouragingly, and his thumbs drew circles over the painful places as if he were trying not to fracture a thin sheet of glass.

The knots relaxed and you exhaled in the closest thing to sheer bliss you'd experienced in a long while. The warmth and gentle pressure had you melting back into him, your head lolling a bit, your eyelids fluttering shut and—

The next thing you knew, you were waking up. "Oh come on, I didn't want to sleep through all the good parts," you mumbled.

John's chuckle rumbled beneath your ear. He had pulled you back onto his lap on your right side, cradled comfortably against his chest. One hand was gently rubbing your back while the other covered the hand you had fisted into his shirt.

"I'm going to take this as a compliment to my therapeutic massage skills," he said.

"And you absolutely should." You raised your head to look at him. "Maybe next time I can even stay conscious long enough to really appreciate said skills. If there is, you know, a next time."

"There will most definitely be a next time," he swore and pressed a kiss to your forehead.

"I still owe you a proper back scratching."

"And I am absolutely going to collect on that," he returned, his tone unexpectedly husky.

You smiled, straightening up to kiss him. He pulled you closer, then paused and sighed against your mouth.

"I've got to go," he said resolutely right before his wristband chirped.

You looked for a way to roll off of him that wouldn't aggravate your shoulder – or potentially crush any of his, ahem, important Spartan equipment – but he scooped you up bridal style and stood as if you weighed nothing at all.

"I'll meet you for dinner if we're back soon enough," he promised and gave you one more tender kiss then placed you onto the couch. Before he went through the door, he paused, looking back like he was memorizing this moment, then he took a breath and was gone.

It was nearly dinner time when the door chime rang and you went to answer it with as much of a hopeful spring in your step as you could manage. However, this time, it wasn't John holding a tray with your evening meal on it.

"Dr. Keyes," you said in surprise, snapping a salute.

She said your rank and last name. "May I come in? We need to talk."

[lemotmo]

I said once that I think that Buddie's first move - the confession, the asking out on a first date - is going to happen towards the midpoint of the B season rather than the end, (This was during Hiatus or very very early into 8B, so I didn't have the information that we do know now - like 8x14 and 8x15 are a two parter) But I still think that it's true.

I still think Buddie's first move will be anywhere from 8x13-8x15 but will definitely occur in that time frame.

My initial timeline placed Eddie back in LA by 8x13 or by the latest 8x14, which I still think is true, although I'm now leaning more towards the end of 8x13 for when Eddie and Chris will be back in LA. And given what we learned in 8x11, the second Eddie comes out of the closet - Buck will realize that he is in love with Eddie. Buck's defense for not being in love with Eddie was that Eddie is straight - the second Eddie dismantles that, Buck will realize his feelings. And given that Buck is not exactly great at hiding his feelings and it's more than likely Eddie and Buck will be sharing a house, a confession once Buck realizes is probably imminent throughout the episode.

BUT given that 8x14 is a two parter where most of the 118 will be in danger, (notably excluding Buck) the confession might hinge on Eddie being in danger. Historically, Eddie NDEs means that Buck takes on a spousal role for Eddie - he's the one that talks to and takes care of Chris after Eddie gets shot, and with the well, everyone was talking to Buck like Buck was Eddie's spouse. With a theoretical NDE in 8x14 and Buck once again taking on that spousal role - it might force Buck to reevaluate his feelings for Eddie if he hasn't already realized yet. And if T is involved, it can show how it was never a choice, it would always be Eddie in an even more explicit sense. (Speaking of, if the chain on Eddie's St Christopher's Necklace snaps in 8x13 or 8x14, I will scream because that narratively indicates a major NDE for Eddie.)

911 in general doesn't do long storylines - most issues are resolved within a few episodes, and I'm pretty sure this will reflect on Buddie as well. They started making Buddie so explicit that the GA could pick up on it - with Madney, once they made the fact that there is romantic subtext explicit, Maddie asked Chimney out 3 episodes later. And there was the whole situation with Doug that made them take a pause, and I could see a similar thing occuring with Chris. But the initial move? That will be really really soon.

Sorry this got so long and if it doesn't make sense, but I am so so excited for Buddie Canon!!!! Hope you have a great day!!!

👏👏👏

YES YES and YES! It makes perfect sense!

This is my personal headcanon timeline as well. I really don't see the show drag this out until next season or anything like that. I'm also thinking that Eddie will be back by 13 or 14. He might come back unanounced (to surprise Buck and the 118) in 14 and get caught up in whatever disaster is going on before he can reveal they're back. It would parallel the tsunami and it would be such a great storyline if Buck is on the outside of the disaster with Athena and he finds out that Eddie (and maybe Chris?) are involved somehow. Cue him having some realisations about Eddie. 🙂‍↕️

Then in 15 the disaster is resolved and Buck, Eddie and Chris are reunited. Ofcourse Buck won't say anything and by then Eddie will have figured out some things of his own when it comes to Buck. So they'll just hover around each other awkwardly, not really knowing how to broach the subject.

Well, since this is just speculation, take all of this with a grain of salt. But still, with the way this storyline is progressing? I wouldn't put it past the show to approach it this way.

I'm sat for the rest of the season for sure! Buddie canon indeed! I am also very excited!

I'm having a really good day. Same to you!

[twig-tea]

Going out on a limb and writing out my convoluted, very flimsily supported by what we've seen and easy to be retconned theory for 4 Minutes to date (as of ep3):

I am taking as granted that the reigning theory is correct and Great is in a cardiac arrest event, during which he is seeing part of his past replaying, except with the ability to see 4 minutes into the future.

In both timelines, Tyme is in debt, and so works with Nan to inflitrate Great and Korn's secret illegal family business. As part of this, he's researched all of the family, including Great. He sees Great--the younger 'screw up'--as his easiest 'in'. In the 'redo' timeline (stealing your nomenclature, @lurkingshan), because of Great's choices on rewind, he finds out who Great is and takes the opportunity to get to know him to see if that gets him closer to his goals of taking down the illegal gambling business. But, also because of Great's choices, he sees Great as a decent person, someone who stays and makes sure the person who he hit and run was ok, who brings flowers but doesn't push for selfies to prove anything, who stops to help pick up papers if he accidentally knocked you over, who rescues kidnapped people and makes sure they get medical attention. So by the time they go on their date, he's actually interested in him as a person, and doesn't go through with seducing him (stops before they kiss). By the time he infiltrates the gambling ring to rescue Nan, when he's caught by Great, he trusts him enough to reveal who he is.

But in the original timeline, Tyme and Great don't meet at the hospital. Instead, Tyme finds out who Great is and finds him another way--Maybe his school. In the original timeline, they fucked, but didn't trust each other. And so, in the original timeline, when shit hit the fan, they were isolated and so more likely to die as a result of whatever takes place. It is this original timeline's events that Great is occasionally seeing in the redo timeline as just visions of things that haven't happened and don't seem to be happening immediately.

In this new timeline, because of Great's rewinds, Tyme trusts him more, and so in this new timeline they'll be able to scheme together, and though they'll end up in the same place, having worked together to get there, they'll end up surviving. Tyme will still have been shot but not fatally, and Great will have still flatlined but will recover. The timelines will meet back up at 11:04; and it will be after those timelines re-merge that we'll get TongKla's revenge killing and Win being faced with the choice of whether or not to arrest the man he's fucking. Because those events are happening parallel-ly, I think they will only tangentally be affected by the timeline changes Great is making, and I'm not sure how yet--if TongKla's brother's death is related to Title or Korn, maybe by taking down Korn and Great's family business, the payment for police corruption ends and so the police are free to actually close TongKla's brother's case, for example?

There's a WHOLE lot in there I am not confident in at all, but this is where my head's at as my favourite theory today!

[freminetistic]

Au where Lyney and Lynette go on a mission and never return, after weeks of overthinking and sleeping alone in their room in their clothes a fatui officer tells Freminet they had been killed. Freminet only gets worse but before he can kill himself Istaroth visits him and they make a deal, he can rewind time to how he sees fit

He gets trapped in a timeloop trying to save his siblings. Over time he loses his mind, he gets so close to saving them but never can. He has screamed at them that they were going to die and poured his heart out explaining everything that has happened even if it feels sour in his throat and even still he had to try again.

Lyney and Lynette are doomed to die by 23, and by some dumb luck in a timeline they make it past that, but they end up dying anyways and Freminet drives himself mad trying to recreate it. He follows exactly what he did in that timeline, he isolates them, anything.

Venti has heard of him of course, how could he not? His mother took in another child. At first he doesn't know what Freminet is doing. He only heard about Freminet through the whispers of the wind, they meet up and talk sometimes, between timelines. Eventually he learns of what Freminet is trying to do and attempts to stop him, but Freminet is far too stubborn. He isolates himself and tries over and over and over because maybe this time he'll save them.

Everytime their 23rd birthday approaches he panics, how will they die this time? Will they make it past only to suffer the same fate to mock him? It feels like that at this point. Celestia is mocking him.

Istaroth gave Freminet a new name. When he made the deal he lost what made him human and instead became something new, something much much worse.

He analyses their deaths to figure out what he did wrong, watching every detail. Ignoring the bile that clings to his throat.

He doesn't stop, he can't stop because if he loses them doesn't he lose himself? (He lost himself when they first died. He hasn't been the same since.) In some timelines he just gives up, maybe if he doesn't do anything but stay in his room rotting away they'll get concerned and be too busy taking care of him to leave. Even that doesn't work, nothing ever works he has to try again. The thing is he doesn't have to reset and try again, hes in a self imposed timeloop, he could stop at any time but he doesn't on the off chance that he can save them. What if he can save them? if be stops now he will never know and wouldn't get the chance to.

Their deaths aren't always the same, they've died in a thousand different ways. At first it made Freminet sick, but at some point he grew numb to it. (Not really, that's how he makes it seem. Everytime he wants to scream, cry, puke, and destroy everything around him.) He knew he needed to get used to it if he was going to save them. Hes forced himself to push every unhelpful emotion down knowing how many failed attempts there were. Emotions will only get in the way and lead to them dying again, if he can't think then he can't think about the fact hes watched the only people be cares about die hundreds— maybe even thousands of times. If he's numb no one will suspect him and ignore his slip ups, Freminet a timetraveler? How silly.

Freminet randomly says things he shouldn't know or things no one has told him because at some point the timelines start to blend together and he mixes what he should and shouldn't know up.

Sometimes Lyney and Lynette notice somethings different, during practices the tricks that would make him have a hint of a smile don't work, he doesn't care for his favorite foods, sure he was cold and borderline pessimistic before but now he just seems hollow and tense, always on fight or flight. (More like fight or reset, he refuses to run and only have himself to blame for their deaths.) He doesn't care about his least favorite food either, they've seen him drink coffee multiple times despite the fact it used to make him panic. It's the only thing that keeps him up by now, he's tired and doesn't know how to fix it or remembers why. (He doesn't sleep, why sleep when that's another chance for them to die? He could be working to save them instead.) When they cuddle he seems distant like he's thinking about something, he tries to enjoy those moments but how can be knowing they'll die again? He can hold them for however long he wants and enjoy their presence when he breaks the cycle.

After the thousand or so tries Freminet started to feel a sort of disdain towards Lyney and Lynette, they were why he was doing this in the first place. The timelines start to mesh together in his mind, he can't really remember why he started this in the first place. He doesn't have the time to stop though, he'll remember when they're safe.

Did he ever truly love them or was he always just obsessed like he is now? He doesn't know, he can't tell. All he knows is it still hurts when he wakes up in the middle of the night remembering their first death, he wasn't there but he can see it so vividly.

He misses who he used to be, maybe if he didn't make this agreement things would have turned out different, being dead would be better than this, atleast then he would get to be with Lyney and Lynette. He didn't have to make the deal, he didn't actually give up anything in it, not his soul, not his life, even if it feels like it. Istaroth knew what would happen and that was enough of a payment.

Eventually the space between timelines' wall is filled with broken clocks, thousands of him. The first one still sitting on his table. At one point he spent years doing nothing but staring at it wondering what it could have been like. The area between timelines is essentially a white void with one wall full of clocks, everytime he fails one breaks. It has a tea table in the middle with two chairs one for him and the other for any visitors. (Mostly Venti, Istaroth rarely visits if ever anymore.)

Everytime he resets he thinks “maybe this time, maybe this time I'll save them.” and he never does. He gets so so so so close but in the end he always fails. The timeloop ends when he goes back one last time and kills himself, and in that timeline his siblings live. They were destined to never be together no matter how hard he tries, they were doomed from the start and nothing he can do can stop it.

[linkons-most-wanted]

Story Timeline & Serpent's Cast

Light spoilers for the new Serpent's Cast World Underneath story below! This is a bit of a ramble but if you're into the lore you'll probably enjoy it...

I've been scraping together clues to try to put together an approximate main story timeline (since there are some pretty big time skips in different places and it's easy to lose track) and Serpent's Cast was both such a godsend in terms of concrete timing and also left my mind spinning.

I actually kinda suspect part of that is because it's ret-conning a timeline error they accidentally introduced... but I'm curious if other folks feel the same way!

For better and for worse, the game's visuals don't always 100% line up with the writing. We've all seen a scene or two where MC "removes his tie" and he's shown to be wearing a sweater, things like that. I generally defer to the writing as canon, especially since sometimes visual assets are re-used for convenience's sake and you don't want to read into that too much. (For example, Zayne's Prologue to Tomorrow branch uses the background of his living room for Dawnbreaker's apartment, which is a completely different location.)

So, originally when I read the Under Deepspace main story, I assumed that the visit shown in Chapter 4 (Under Twilight) was the one mentioned in Chapter 1, where Caleb says they'll see Grandma "at the end of the month". So then, the Bloomshore District explosion would have happened within a month of MC becoming a hunter.

But, I wasn't always sure that fit with Grandma's comment that "You haven't visited much since you became a hunter". If she were visiting daily and then dropped off it'd still make sense for her to say that within a month, but it also sort of feels like more time should have passed.

And, to that point, Serpent's Cast specifies that it's winter when the Bloomshore District explosion happens, meaning it's been about 6mo since the start of the main story. (I'm happy to go into it, but there's a pretty big pile of evidence that the main story starts in approx July 2048, around the 14th anniversary of the Chronorift Catastrophe). This would then also put the events of Galactic Sunset in the summer (a year after the start of the main story) which makes a little more sense for Rafayel and MC setting out in a row boat, but the writing is usually cagey about the seasons so it could really go either way.

This time skip actually fixes another issue I'd run into in my attempt to make a timeline, which is that Voyage of the Outcast specifically states that Prologue to Tomorrow takes place in autumn, and putting the Bloomshore District explosion in December 2048 actually makes that timing pretty much spot on.

But what's interesting here is that given the way that the Family, Interlude, and Within Reach chapters are written, there's absolutely zero indication that it's winter. Which would, y'know, seem relevant.

My theory here is that this was initially left to be a flexible time skip to give the writers room to manuever, and then they ended up realizing it needed to be a pretty big time-skip, so this seasonal reference in Serpent's Cast is a ret-con to ensure the overall timeline makes sense (for which I'm extremely grateful).

They also give us the specific year when Caleb finished his 3rd year at DAA, as well as his age at that time (since it's midsummer it'd be just after his 21st birthday) which is also a blessing for my efforts to work out the timeline. Caleb's age is still implied to be uncertain, as with MC's, but we at least know what age/birthday is locked in on his paperwork. (Which we won't ever know for MC, because part of the point of her birthday being unknown is that it gets to be the player's chosen birthday.)

Notably, part of why I think the season is a ret-con is getting Caleb's concrete age is also a bit of a ret-con--what's in Serpent's Cast contradicts (and I think is more accurate than) the age referenced in Summer's Echo, where MC notes a "seventeen or eighteen year old Caleb" a the end of the summer after his freshman year. Since he's got a June birthday, based on Serpent's Cast he's actually 19 at this time. My best guess is that the writer(s) for Summer's Echo had caleb as being 9-10 during the Chronorift Catastrophe, and didn't know his birthday, so they said "17 or 18" because that would be Caleb's age at the start of the year. This also means that Caleb turned 11 the year of the Chronorift Catastrophe. For him to actually be 17/18 at the end of the summer in Summer's Echo, he'd be quite young for his grade and he wouldn't turn 25 until 2049, and for the characters with ages that actually matter (pretty much just Zayne and Caleb at this point, maybe also Rafayel) their ages seem to be as of 2048 when the main story starts.

This gets interesting when we compare it to MC's timeline, which is most consistent with her starting 3rd grade in 2034 and graduating college right before the main story in 2048. In order for them to overlap for a year in high school (as implied in Borrowed Promise) then they'd have to be going to a 4-year high school (as is more common in the US) as opposed to a 3-year high school (as is more common in CN) in order to accomodate the apparent 3 year grade gap.

So I kiiiinda think the writers painted themselves into a corner, and gods bless the Serpent's Cast writer(s) for giving us some clues as to the canon timeline. 😅

Is anyone else overthinking this? Any alternate theories?

[summerf0x]

I think the real reason why Artic’s death is so horrifying isn’t because of the gore. It’s because it represents Darkstalker finally becoming the monster he was prophecized to be.

The entire book you know how it’s going to end. Darkstalker will be sealed beneath a mountain, Clearsight will flee the continent, and Fathom leaves the public eye with Indigo. The build up is an entirely different story. All three of them want the future to be different, one where they stay together and avoid the grim fate that awaits them, and for a few brief periods all over the story you think they will. Clearsight says that she had almost entirely written out the scroll as a possibility because of how few timelines it appeared in.

Fathom manages to gradually reign in Darkstalker to the point where the thought of him enchanting the goblet was shocking. And yet, Darkstalker continues down the dark path. He doesn’t trap Indigo just because he loathes her (although that definitely contributed to it). He traps her because it’s a stepping stone to getting Fathom more willing to use his animus powers, weather that be voluntarily or not. He gives Clearsight the earrings not because he dislikes her power. He gives it to her because it’s only a temporary thing to make sure she’s happier and he check all her work anyway, so nothing bad would happen!

Darkstalker has convinced himself that every action he does is the right one. It’s all to move them towards the best possible future, where everyone’s happy in the end. At least… he says that. Some part of Darkstalker still knows these are wrong. That’s why he wrote them in the invisible ink. That’s why he never fully enchanted, Clearsight or Fathom to change. Little, justifiable nudges that he could write off as a necessary evil. It doesn't matter how they get to the big, happy ending. Just that they get there in the first place. Everyone will be happy then, so when he reveals what he did they'll be mad for a bit but will ultimately accept that it all worked out in the end.

It's this philosophy that helps Darkstalker continue. He's not a monster because he never changes them directly, only with something small and disposeable like an object. He is so terrifed of being that bloodstained dragon in the future he refuses to do it directly, maintaining plausable deniability the entire time. It creates a buffer between them, and as long as it stands he considers himself blameless.

Even when everyone else is against him for surviving Quickdeath’s attack, he doesn’t focus on the fact that they are horrified that he enchanted himself to be invulnerable and instead says that the problem is resolved and is shocked that they aren’t relieved and going on as normal.

When he enchants Arctic, he still doesn’t lay a hand on him. Not his claws. He is not bloody. Not yet. He flies Arctic to the center of the Nightwing kingdom and creates a mock trial out of his father’s death. He kills him as a show of power, yes, but convinced himself it’s justifiable. He waits for the crowd’s reaction before doing it.

Arctic’s death isn’t even that descriptive. The book says that it was “messy” but there aren’t pages and pages of vivid gore. It’s a short paragraph and while it is the culmination of Darkstalker’s decent into power-driven madness the violence is so very small in a book filled with it. There’s no return from here. Clearsight says it herself, when everything is done. She can’t return to the Nightwings after being seen on that stage with Darkstalker. This is what finally gets Fathom to give up on any attempts to bring him back to the friendly, charming version of the Darkstalker he knew.

There’s no return for Darkstalker, either. In his mind, he’s won. He’s “triumphed” over Arctic after all this time. He’s finally killed someone. No. He’s finally made someone kill themselves. Like some sort of horrible gotcha to the universe, there is no blood on his claws. No blemishes on his body. Even when killing his father, he remains blameless in his mind. He would have remained blameless when killing anyone else.