#still upset about the game that's been dead for like three years

[kamassa-river]

I played the new telegram missions not really expecting much given that the last batch we got was an utter mess i played once and never looked at again but man they are so fucking bad lmao.

First off they all just have you walking in a circle for a painfully long time (espescially the hunting one). It's either "get on your horse and ride over here, get off your horse and beat up some people" or "follow this npc over here, beat up some people", rinse and repeat X amount of times. Now, you could argue that most rdo missions were already like this, just more well hidden, and you'd be right, but normally there's a layer of ...idk what the right word is. Immersion? There's enough thought put into distracting you from the fact that all you're really doing is going from point A to point B and then shooting a couple of enemies that it, well, works. Simply put. But when it's done in utter silence, interrupted only by some chopped up voicelines already in the game, it doesnt. At all.

Second, (and this goes for most of the telegram missions) you dont get to choose the difficulty, there is absolutely no indication that your aim assist will be completely turned off even on standard difficulty, aka your first attempt, and you dont get to choose if you wanna play solo or matchmake, so you either a) end up with randoms who rush through the mission or b) play alone against a now ridiculous amount of poorly programmed enemies. It's the same thing as the pvp modes being on a fucking schedule and stranger missions paying more the longer you take - backwards in the most annoying ways possible.

This on top of Rockstar removing posse and horse names in an "update" (only you can see you horse name now, other players just see the breed) and the game still getting glitchier each time i log on.. it's just insulting honestly.

And let's talk about the actual missions. Look at this.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN??

This is from the "protect the do-gooder" or whatever it was called (it's really that memorable) and like?? I was genuinely so confused as to what just happened when i played this but apparently she's getting kidnapped. Mind you, we're not forced to go down here - the driver takes her here for some reason (i guess she's meant to be helping the poor?? that's my best guess as she was giving money to beggars earlier but we also went to the saloon and then got her mail for her so idk man) and she gets out and walks out on the dock by her own volition. We then go and save her in thieves landing but dont actually take her to where she was originally going. It just ends there. But i think most people just want this shit to be over at that point so it's probably for the best.

It's crazy to me that this exists alongside rdr2's story mode. Sure, rdo has never been and never will be at that same level of storytelling but compare this to Land of Opportunities or Life of 'Shine. Those still had some heart. There was at least some thought and care put into them. Even the first few telegrams we got had potential. I remember really enjoying the one where you're in Saint Denis trying to find your target and the only clue you get is that he wears a tophat and striped vest. It was creative if nothing else. This is just "There's guys for you to shoot, what more do you want? Oh, why is there no dialouge? Oh- Yeah, um, so the budget for this was actually nothing. Yeah. It was actually an exercise for our new intern. Was it his first day? Yes. Yes it was. And we obviously didnt record any new voicelines for this so, uh, you kinda just have to imagine there's a plot for this one. I think it's kinda charming that it's like charades and you have to guess what's going on. Or- Oh! A silent film! We did add the Halloween pass 2 back for the fourth year in a row, though. That's exciting, right?"

[lovecla]

© property of lovecla, nhl masterlist, nico hischier x you:

FAKE IT ‘TILL YOU MAKE IT, game plan:

➴ chapter warnings: none <3

➴ word count: 1.5k

💌 from me to you: and here’s the first chapter of fake it ‘till you make it! posting this sooner than expected in honor of last night’s game. can you guys believe we have nico hischier as our captain? how lucky are we? anyways! i hope you all like this! (the posting schedule will be just like TYPA, every other day!) ♡

𖧷

WHEN YOU tell people that being friends with a hot, young NHL player isn’t at all that great, all they do is look at you like you’re batshit crazy, and give you one hundred and fifty four arguments trying to make you, someone who’s been friends with a guy who’s been a NHL star player for the past few years, see how wrong you are.

You love Nico Hischier. You really do. You met him when you were just eighteen, being friends with his sister, Nina, and immediately locking in with Nico. He’s the sweetest, kindest and most loving man you have ever met in your life, and now that you’re twenty-three, almost twenty-four, you can see how rare men like Nico are.

But now that he’s a famous player, captain of an entire team and known for being one of the hottest men in the NHL, you sure feel like you’re paying a high price for being in his life.

Not in a bad way, though. It just sucks to see the amount of women throwing themselves at his feet, and what sucks even more, is knowing that he won’t even blink an eye at them because he’s head over heels for Nora Ellis, a crazy girl he met two years ago at a party.

Nora is beautiful, you’ll give him that. And usually, you wouldn’t be upset with him having a crush. In fact, you and Nina are always encouraging him to engage in new relationships and meet new people, so that he isn’t only worried about his job.

Nora. She’s the most beautiful black woman you have ever seen. She’s intelligent, she’s funny and she knows things about Hockey like no one else— being the daughter of one of the most talented coaches in the NHL does that to you, you guess.

The only problem with Nora Ellis is the fact that she only cares for men who are in a relationship.

Married or dating, she doesn’t care. Her only goal is to make them give up on their partner to be with her, and once she gets tired of them, she finds another mission to busy herself with.

Nico doesn’t seem to notice that. To be fair, no one really does. She can be very subtle and discreet, and the only reason why you caught up on that in the first place is because every party you go to, you try to blend yourself with the walls, so you don’t get too much attention on yourself.

Nico always tells you to stay by his side and mingle with his friends, but by the end of the night, you’re always sitting near the bathroom door, with a drink in your hands, watching the party unfold with attentive eyes.

And turns out that a lot can happen in the bathroom of a party full of NHL players and Nora Ellis.

So you know she’s not good for him. You’ve tried to talk him out of it more times than you can actually recall, but it’s a dead end. Nico’s in love with her, and has been for two years now. He won’t give up on her unless something really drastic happens, but since Nora is really good at what she does— destroying relationships for fun—, nothing will ever rise to the surface.

“She’s so… pretty,” Nico sighs, sitting on the couch beside you, making you sigh and put your book down, not forgetting to mark the page you were in. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you.”

You smile, touching his cheek, watching with awe as his dimples appear. “It’s fine, Dimples.”

He rolls his eyes as he always does when you call him that, and continues.

“You’re the only one who still listens to me ramble about Nora,” he pouts. “Nina said that if I talk about her one more time, she’ll fly to Newark and personally destroy my phone so I can’t call her anymore.”

You laugh loudly, perfectly picturing Nina saying that.

“And Luca?” you ask, raising your eyebrow.

“Luca just says I need to move on.”

“Well, he’s always been more patient than Nina, that’s for sure,” you nod, placing your book on Nico’s coffee table and bringing your knees close to your chest, resting your head on them. “But… he’s not wrong, y’know?”

Nico gives you the puppy eyes, as he always does whenever someone mentions that he should get over Nora, and you sigh again.

Seeing him like this sucked in every way. And you’ve tried everything— get him on dating apps, blind dates, normal dates, pointing at a pretty girl at a party, literally everything.

And still, he’s not budging.

“I wish she would just look at me. I’m handsome, right?” He looks at you, brown eyes filled with despair.

You spend some seconds analyzing him, as you often liked to do. His brown, hazelnut eyes that shined bright everyday, his hair that’s now a little bit longer than usual, his legs and arms which are absolutely huge— when did he get that big anyway?— and his perfect, charming smile and dimples.

“Emma?”

“O-oh, yeah, you’re… fine, I guess,” you shrug, trying to hide the fact that you were checking him out. Weird. “It’s not about you, Nico, I’ve said that before.”

“Okay, but why won’t she pay attention to me, then?”

Because you don’t have a girlfriend, is what you want to say.

Wait.

“Oh my God!” you jump in your seat, scaring Nico who lets out a loud scream and jumps out of the couch with you.

“What the— Emma.” He puts his hands on his hips, trying to look scary, but you brush him off.

“I know how to make her fall in love with you,” you smile, walking around in circles, trying to organize your thoughts inside your head. Nico. Nora. She thinks she’s in love. Nico’s happy. They get together. She’ll leave him after three months or so. Nico’s sad. But! Nico’s moved on. “God, how did I not think of that before?”

“What are you talking about—”

“We have to date.”

Nico stares at you like you’re crazy, his eyes big and confused. He opens his mouth a few times, probably trying to think of something to say, before closing it and inhaling the air.

You wait for him to say something, but when it’s obvious that he won’t, you continue:

“I know it sounds crazy, and I know what you must be thinking, but hear me out,” you step closer, looking up at him. “Girls sometimes don’t pay attention to guys because… well, because they can’t really see them. Like, for example: there’s this one guy in my office which I don’t care about, he’s just my coworker and nothing else.”

“What does this have to do with—” you put your index finger over his lips, shushing him.

“Wait,” you say. “So, he’s there and he isn’t anything. Until, one night, I had a dream that he’s dating me. And suddenly, I wake up and go to work, and I can’t see him the same way I did before. I start noticing how nice his hair is or how tall he is. Do you understand it now?”

Nico smiles, scratching his forehead with his finger.

“No, Emma. That doesn’t even make sense.”

You snort. “Because you’re a man. But trust me on this one, Nico. The second Nora sees you with someone else, she will notice you.”

Mostly because she’s a whore, but we’ll keep that to ourselves for a while.

“Do you have… like… a crush on me or something?” His face is now red and he gets closer to you, placing his hand on your shoulder while he looks like he’s trying to comfort you. “Is that why you want to do this?”

“What— No, what the hell!” you can feel your face getting warm and you step away from him. “No, I don’t have a c-crush on you. I just can’t stand you talking about her anymore. I’m your friend, so I will help you.”

Nico sighs, relieved it seems, still looking unsure.

“You don’t have to do it, if you don’t want to,” you say, closing your eyes for a few seconds. “I know it sounds crazy and I know you probably think I’m trying to get something here but in reality—”

“I’ll do it.”

“What?!” you can’t hide your surprise, almost shouting with how loud you spoke.

He smiles, sitting back on the couch, spreading his thighs and stretching his arms. “I mean, you’re never wrong about these love related things. You did get my sister an amazing boyfriend and you did manage to convince my brother to ask that girl out, and now they’re married. So it’s probably my turn to accept your love advice and shit, right?”

You’re starting to feel bad about this whole thing, because you know Nora will probably break his heart in thousands of little pieces, but what else can you do?

It’s the perfect plan, you think to yourself. It’s flawless, and it will work.

“I try my best,” you give him a half-smile, crossing your arms in front of your chest. “But you have to promise me something.”

Nico nods. “Anything.”

“If this doesn’t work out, then you'll move on.”

“Emma—”

“It’s not healthy for you to be thristing over someone for this much time,” you sit on the couch next to him and place your hand on his shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. “We will fight, and we will fight hard, but if there’s no results in three months, and I’m being generous, we’ll move on. Okay?”

Nico stared at his hands, biting his lips before looking at you again.

“Okay.”

𖧷

<next chapter>

[goldenlikedayl1ght]

we're in love - m. murdock

a/n: hi guys not dead just played a LOT of baldurs gate over break and now im back ay college with matt murdock brainrot this ones been floating around the old noggin a while. sorry. likes, reblogs, and comments are always appreciated! <3 warnings: DEAD DOVE with a happy ending, hard of hearing reader, cannon typical marvel violence, probably badly written violence, matt being upset, once again im tired and sleepy and bad at doing warnings, reader gets kidnapped TWICE, reader has superpowers, reader is TECHNICALLY a hybrid but literally just in the way that she has small antlers and deer like abilities (strength, jump height), fucked up experiments, ANGST ANGST ANGST, memory loss trope but like... the one from the hunger games. matt is hopelessly in love with reader, reader wants to kill matt, kissing, implied sexual ideas, cursing. SHAMELESS USE OF REAL OR NOT REAL FROM THG, reader having anxiety, and allusions of sex. word count: 7.1k summary: when your past finally catches up to you, matt truly learns what 'in sickness and in health' means. pairing: matt murdock x hoh!wife!reader now playing: we're in love - boygenius "will you still love me if it turns out I'm insane?/i know what you'll say/but it helps to hear you say it anyway."

Falling in love with Matt Murdock was the easy part.

Falling back in love with him was the tough bit.

You had spent the years leading up to meeting him as a boxer turned vigilante— Your dad had taught you how to fight young, which led to a lot of trouble at school until he eventually started helping you enter teenage fights against your mom’s wishes.

It’s how you paid for college.

And then, after your college experience, you lose control. It was never supposed to happen the way it did. You had lost a fight and stole the guy’s motorcycle in defiance. But the roads were wet from an early snow and people of New York never knew how to drive.

Just like that, the nerves in your hands were shot. The accident got your hearing too since you got sick from the cold after your accident. The infection got so bad that it took the hearing from your left ear—And half from your right.

For months, you thought you’d never gain control of your hands again, snapping from a promising young fighter to a deaf and shaky temp. You were miserable. Fighting was your everything for so long.

And then The Doctor found you.

No, not the alien from the British television show, but a man who promised you your old life back. He found you while you were at your lowest and realized that you would do anything for your old life back.

He said in exchange for your old life, all you would have to do would be a test subject for a harmless new drug he was testing out.

You were so enamored by the idea of your old life that you had decided to take him up on his offer, so you were whisked away upstate with a group of other people desperate enough to try this experiment out.

Every morning you were given a shot of blue liquid into your arm, and then, you were to preform a series of tasks to record your progress. After three weeks you grew frustrated that you had seen no progress. You spent most of your time asking people to talk into your right ear and becoming mad at The Doctor.

About a month in, you started growing antlers.

At first, you freaked out. Like, truly, screamed and yelled, wanting an explanation. The Doctor celebrated, telling you this was great news—And to prove it, he had you pick up a pen and write a sentence out. Your hands didn’t shake and did everything you told them to do.

On top of the antlers and the newfound control of your nerves, you were strong—Fast, too. You could jump twelve-foot walls. The Doctor was obsessed with you. While other patients died off from whatever drugs you were being given, you were thriving.

At the end of your three-month stay, you were excited to leave and head back to your life. You’d just have to wear beanies everywhere to hide your antlers, you told yourself. A small price to pay.

But The Doctor wouldn’t let you leave.

How could he, he asked you, when you were his best test subject?

Being a prisoner was a lot worse than you thought it would be. Day in and day out, you were trained to be a soldier, you think. Fighting various guards, doing different athletic tests. The serum hadn’t fixed your hearing, but it had given you all of these gifts.

Until The Doctor became cruel.

He gave the guards these batons that had shock currents at the end of them, instructing them to use it whenever you talked back or underperformed. For months you struggled through days of electric shocks and experiments.

One night, a guard slipped into your cell, expecting you to be an easy target. You quickly showed him differently, knocking him out and stealing his weapons. And then, you ran. You ran until your feet bled—No shoes.

An old woman who had retired upstate welcomed you into her small cabin and fed you, never asking about the small antlers growing out of your head. She simply gave you a warm knit cap and a pair of boots for the cold.

You remember eating chili with her as she told you about her deceased husband. You changed your last name to theirs, knowing The Doctor would find you if you kept going by your name. You stayed with her for a weekend, coming back from gathering firewood to The Doctor’s men there, having killed the kind old woman and on the hunt for you. You stole her car and never looked back.

The next few weeks after that had been full of killing various soldiers and armies that The Doctor had sent after you, until you eventually pushed The Doctor off a building, believing to have killed him for good.

And that was that.

You went on with your life as usual, finding a permanent job as a secretary. In a law office.

Which, of course, is where you met Matt.

With Matt, you never felt the need to hide who you were. Of course, it was a lot easier to tell him that some mad scientist had infected you with a drug that turned you into a deer hybrid when he told you that he was Daredevil.

And with time, some of the effects of the serum began to fizzle out. Strength, Agility, Antlers—Those stayed. The control over your hands didn’t. But you made peace with that. Physical Therapy twice a week and hearing aids helped.

Especially because early Sunday mornings were filled with Matt running his fingers through your hair, running his pointer finger along the curves of your antlers. He takes your hands and kisses your fingertips as they shake, hushing you softly when you start crying as he does.

He spars with you and spends nights running around New York City with you, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

He tells you about Elektra, Stick, his dad, and Fisk.

One day, when you feel safe enough, wrapped up in his arms and a layer of blankets as snow falls against the windows, you tell him about The Doctor.  You explain to him your nightmares, and why they will never go away.

He kisses away your tears and promises he’ll never let anything happen to you.

When he asks you to marry him, you don’t hesitate to say yes. There’s not a moment where you regret that decision. You insist to get married in the summer, during the short month where your antlers shed before they grow back. He agrees happily, just wanting you to be happy.

You’ve been married for about five months when you start to think about kids. You’ve been married six when you realize the worst possible scenario is your reality—When vials of blue serum show up at your front door with a note scribbled out—

‘My Best Test Subject,

I cannot wait to catch up with you soon.

-The Doctor’

You call Matt in a panic, begging him to come home and be with you. He obliges and holds you as you calm down. He promised to love you in sickness and in health, and that is what he fully intends to do.

This is the story of the greatest challenge that your marriage would face.

• • •

After the note you had received, you almost exclusively traveled with Matt. Even for just a casual stroll, a walk to the deli or home from work, He was there with you. He knew you could handle yourself, but you felt safer with him close by.

But Matt’s senses were never as focused when it rained, especially on nights like today. The rain pours, it almost stings against his skin. And it’s loud. You don’t have your hearing aids in, so they catch you both by surprise.

It all happens too fast—

In an instant, Matt is being pulled off your arm and slammed against the closest brick alley, and when he hears the click of a gun behind him, he realizes what’s happening. He tries to fight, but before he can make any process, someone is swinging that gun against his head, and when he wakes up, he’s all alone.

He calls out to you and gets no response other than thunder rumbling from miles away. He is filled with nothing but a rage, a determination to find you.

He scrambles for his phone and uses it to call Karen.

“I need you to get Frank.” He tells her, “Please. I.. I don’t know what happened, but.. He took her, I need.. Karen, I need to find her.” He tells her.

Frank is on his way to New York within the hour.

• • •

When you wake up, your arms are strapped behind your back in some sort of metal contraption. You can feel the ache in your hands, indicating that you had fought against whoever brought you here. The room is quiet. A small cot in one corner, but the rest of the room is barren.

You’re wearing white pants and a gray muscle tee, with no shoes. You’re suddenly thankful you left your wedding ring at home, so that it might not end up in his hands.

You wait a while, and then the door opens. The Doctor, flanked by two men in heavy armor, holding those batons you’re all too acquainted with, steps into the room. You simply stare, but The Doctor looks like a child on Christmas morning.

But there’s something else to his appearance. His left eye is this bright yellow, and his pupil is a different shape. Green scales travel up his neck and coat the bottom right half of his face, and down his arms, reaching his fingertips. He looks like a monster, but you quickly realize what has happened.

Whatever serum gave you your abilities, was given to him. Only, his was made from that of snakes, not deer.

“My beautiful creation!” He gasps and takes your face in his hand, planting a kiss to your head, right between your antlers. “It’s been too long, you know.” His ‘s’ sounds are elongated, and his teeth are sharper. He has become destroyed by his own mad endeavors. When you don’t respond to his greeting, he continues to speak. “It’s been an eventful few years for you, huh?” When this doesn’t get a response from you, he stands up straight and backs up just a foot. “New job, new name… New husband.” Your head snaps up at that. “What? You think I haven’t been keeping tabs on you and the boy? What do you call him, then? Matthew or Daredevil?”

Your eyes grow wide, unsure how he knows about your husband’s secret hobby.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” You spit, your gaze hardening into a glare.

“Don’t I? You make quite the couple. The little deaf doe and her crime fighting blind husband.” He laughs, “And they say I like a project.”

“You won’t touch him or I swear to god—”

“Little doe, you misunderstand. I want nothing to do with your husband. I just want you to be the good subject I know you can be.” He tells you. “You and I are the only of our kind. I want to study you, replicate you.”

“You’re going to kidnap more people.”

“You weren’t kidnapped, you volunteered.”

“I won’t do whatever it is you want me to do.” You tell him. “I don’t care, I will escape, I will kill you.”

He shakes his head, taking one of the batons from the guards, before hitting you across the face with it. You groan in pain, turning your head back to glare at him. He sighs.

“I didn’t want to have to do this. But I did anticipate that Husband of yours interrupting things.” He hands the baton back to the guard before telling him. “Take her down the hall and get her ready, alright?”

You struggle your way down the hall, refusing to do whatever is coming to you without a fight. When the guards uncuff you to strap you to this big dentist looking chair, you manage to get out of the grasp of the guard, swinging a punch on him but this newfound advantage is short lived, as the other guard quickly grabs your arms and pushes you against the chair. You’re yelling and thrashing but they manage to get your arms and legs strapped down to the chair.

Your heartbeat is racing, and quietly, only in your mind, you beg. But not for mercy. Not from The Doctor. You beg Matt to come find you. Because you know that you do not stand a chance on your own, but maybe he could find you. He had to find you.

The Doctor sits in a chair next to you and holds up a small purple vial.

“This is hallucinogenic snake venom, mixed with a duller version of the serum we gave you. What this will do is allow me to go into your memories and alter them.” He explains as if you’re getting a simple procedure done. Tears fill your eyes.

“You’re going to make me forget him?” You ask, your voice breaking.

The Doctor hushes you softly, wiping your tears softly.

“Oh, no, little doe. I’m going to change what you do remember about him to make you hate him.”

• • •

Six months is a long time to be without your wife. For anyone, no matter who it is.

For Matt Murdock, it’s absolute torture. He spends all day half paying attention to his work while trying to research who The Doctor is. He spends all night trying to find you.

Frank lives, breathes, eats and sleeps to find you. He’s still technically a wanted man, so he pretty much stays under the radar as he looks for you. You remind him of a lot of guys he knew in the army, of himself.

Karen busies herself with research, looking through cases of old files at The Bulletin to try and see if there are any tips or stories that could maybe be connected to where you are. She gets about as little sleep as Matt.

And Foggy has the most important job of all.

Making sure Matt doesn’t kill himself in the process of trying to find you. Because for the first two months Matt didn’t sleep, hardly ate. And as he deteriorated, Foggy reminded him that to find you, he’d need to stay alive. He needs to shower, he needs to keep going to church, he needs to keep eating. The thought of hearing your heartbeat again keeps him going.

It’s as they’re packing up to go home one night that Frank comes into the office with blood-stained hands. They all know he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t have something, so Karen asks first.

“What? What is it?”

“Buddy of mine found a file. Some private medicinal corporation funding a project for some sort of doctor doing cancer research, upstate.”

The location peaks Matt’s interest, because one of the few things he knows of your first experience is that the lab was in upstate New York.

“Okay, but—” Karen starts, but Frank hands her the file.

“Report shows the guy had scales.” He told her. “And I don’t know what you guys make of that but sounds to me like a side effect similar to the serum that was given to her.”

“Where?” Matt asks.

“Red, just—”

“Give me a god damn address, Frank.” He demands.

“I’ll drive you. Come on, things are probably gonna get wild and I don’t want you going alone.” He told him. Matt agrees, but only because he knows he can’t drive and would wind up walking to you.

“Then let’s go.” Before Frank can argue, Matt is walking out the door and going to get suited up for the journey ahead.

• • •

Daredevil is my enemy.

Matt Murdock hates me.

I hate him.

We were never really in love with each other.

These are the thoughts that echo through your mind as you wait for your next round of testing. The six-month mark is pivotal, The Doctor tells you time and time again.

Overall, you’ve made tremendous progress. He tells you that within weeks, other serums will be ready to test on new subjects. Maybe then, he tells you, he’ll promote you from just being a soldier.

Maybe.

You almost don’t hear the alarm going off somewhere in the distance. Of course, you don’t. The serum has never helped your hearing.

The way you remember it, Daredevil, a man who once claimed to love you, fought you to the point that he destroyed the nerves in your hands, destroyed your hearing. It’s fuzzy now, but you know this: The Doctor helped you. He put you back together.

But you do hear the alarm, eventually. It concerns you; it means someone has broken into the building. Your thoughts linger on the masked vigilante that haunts your nightmare. You’re getting stronger to defeat him, The Doctor says.

It’s a cool summer night when whoever it is broke in, breaks down your door. You immediately stand, quickly identifying Frank Castle, a grin breaking across your face. Closely behind, you identify a man in red.

Your heartbeat races, but you just stare at the pair.

Matt strips off his helmet and approaches you, wanting to make sure this was real. That you were real. His hands find your cheeks, and tears fill his eyes. He says your name gently.

“I found you, I’ve got you…”

You blink, unsure of what sort of cruel teasing that was.

Because in an instant, your glare hardens and you’re pushing him against a wall, starting to throw punches at him. He’s too far in shock to react, but Frank is pulling you off of him, and you’re struggling against him.

“Let me go! I need to kill him! He’s evil, he needs to die!” You cry, and Matt is just saying your name softly, in absolute disarray. What had they done to you, his sweet girl?

Frank pins you down to the ground, unsure of why you, a woman he had perceived to be so in love with the man behind him, are so adamant that he dies.

“Enough, Enough!” He barks, grabbing your chin and forcing you to look at Matt. “That is your husband, girl. Stop acting like he’s torturing you when he is not the one whose been experimenting on you for six months!”

“Let me go, I need him gone! He’s cruel, He’s a monster!” You cry, and Matt has started crying. Putting you both out of your misery, Frank hits you in a way that knocks you right out. Matt goes over to your now unconscious form and pets your hair.

“Why was she—”

“I don’t know.. I just don’t know, red. Let’s get her out of here to figure it out, okay?” Matt just nods and grabs his helmet, slipping it on so Frank can’t see him crying anymore.

• • •

If you had a nickel for every time you woke up tied to a chair, you’d have more nickels than you had fingers.

Today is no different.

You’re surrounded by people you don’t recognize. And one you do. Your angry glare stays on him, and he looks upset by it.

You’re unsure why. You’re so sure he just wanted you dead.

The blonde woman in front of you says your name softly. When your gaze shifts to her, you notice her soft eyes.

“How do you know my name?” You ask.

She frowns.

“It—Because we’re good friends.”

“I don’t know you.”

“You don’t… My name is Karen.” She says softly. She goes over to a nearby shelf, pulling out a picture frame and showing it to you. “Here, that’s you and me. At your wedding.”

“My wedding? The one that he set up just to hurt me?”

Matt remembers you telling him that you had never been happier than when you were getting ready for your wedding.

There’s two other men, one held you down while you were meant to kill Matt, but the other one.. You vaguely remember him standing next to Matt when you got married.

He speaks next.

“Matt and Frank, they found these vials in one of the labs. We think the man that took you used it to... to alter your memories.”

“Why would The Doctor do that? He helped me.” You tell them, unsure what to make of this whole situation. Matt is growing extremely frustrated because he knows just how scared you were of that monster.

“Untie her.” Matt tells Frank, and everyone looks at him like he’s crazy. Including you because you know that you’ll just try and kill him. “Do it,” he tells him again and very hesitantly, Frank does untie you. When you’re free from the rope, you step forward to go towards Matt, but Frank grabs your arm.

“Don’t,” he says. But then, Matt reaches for Frank’s gun on the nearby table and hands it to you. Odd choice for a man you want to kill.

“Go ahead.” He tells you, facing you now. “Shoot me, kill me if that’s what you really want to do.” He says. You stare at the gun in your hand for a second, before holding it properly and aiming it at Matt. Everyone waits with bated breath to see what you’ll do.

Pull the trigger, you tell yourself, The Doctor’s voice echoing around your head. He hurt you, the voice says. He needs to die.

And yet, you just stare at the man on the other end of the gun, trying to build up the courage to kill him. To kill the man that for months you have been taught needs to die. That you have memories of hurting you, of maiming you.

Your hand tremors as tears fill your eyes, until you eventually drop your arm, so the gun isn’t pointing at him anymore.

“Look at the photo of you and Karen,” Matt tells you, “You have hearing aids in the photo. I didn’t do that to you, you got into a bad accident, you got sick and that’s how you lost your hearing. I had nothing to do with that. You even had your powers before me, you didn’t just get them in the past six months. The Doctor is an evil man who just wanted to torture people and turn them into science experiments.” He tells you, and you want to tell him to stop, that it’s not true. But something in you tells you not to. “I love you,” he says gently, and you flinch away from him when he says this.

It breaks his heart into a million pieces. Absolutely shatters it.

“I don’t know you.” You tell him.

Sensing that Matt doesn’t know what to say to that, Frank steps forward.

“Hey. I’m Frank, you remember me?”

“You pinned me down when you found me.” He sighs softly.

“Yeah, well.. You have memories of when the two of you got married, right? So those are real memories… What about the ones of him hurting you? Do they look any different?”

You take a moment to close your eyes and really focus on the memory you have so closely attached to the man in red. They’re.. Filmy. Like they have a filter on them or like glass shimmering in the sun.

Tears fall from your eyes as you open them, your hand quickly coming up to wipe your tears.

“I think we did enough for now.. She needs to rest.” The man whose name you don’t know, but he has this shaggy blonde hair. Then this question comes up in everyone’s mind—Where will you stay?

“I’ll take the couch,” Matt says, “You take the bed.” You don’t know how comfortable you are with being alone with Matt in this apartment, even if the memories are fake. They feel pretty real.

“I don’t know if—” Karen starts.

“I.. It’s fine..” you say softly, and that fills Matt with a fraction of hope. “It’s just over night.”

Frank sighs softly, taking his gun off the table and glancing at Matt.

“We’re only a phone call away, alright?” Karen tells him.

It feels sort of awkward that they only talk to him as if you can’t hear them. Well, you can’t hear them very well, but you can hear.

“There’s clothes for you in the bedroom,” Matt tells you, “Go take a shower and I’ll walk them to the door.” Very reluctant to turn your back on Matt, you make your way to the bedroom to gather your clothes and go to shower.

You really haven’t had a good shower in six months, so it’s nice to wash the dirt off your skin and from beneath your fingernails. You spend a long time under the hot shower, letting it burn your skin. Your whole life has been turned upside down because you’re slowly coming to terms with the fact that Matt Murdock isn’t your sworn enemy, and that maybe.. he just.. does like you..

Meanwhile, Matt walks the others out, or at least to the door, hesitant to go too far from you.

Foggy glances back to him before he leaves, curiously.

“How did you know she wouldn’t shoot you?”

He hesitates.

“I didn’t.” he says softly. “I just trusted that somewhere within her, my wife still loves me.”

• • •

Later that night, you stare out the window of his apartment at that bright billboard. You gaze at it curiously, and hear Matt call your name gently behind you. In his hands, he holds your hearing aids.

You put them on, and just look at him for a few minutes.

“You kept them?”

“I never stopped looking for you..” He told you. “I prayed every night hoping to hear your heartbeat again.” He tells you, and you don’t know what to make of it. He seems so devoted to you, yet you have these memories of him beating you until you’re close to death.

“I’m sorry I can’t be in love with you the way you want me to be.”

He shrugs gently.

“In sickness and in health, right?”

“And in torture and memory alteration.”

“Same thing.”

For the first time in six months, you smile.

Maybe your husband isn’t such a bad guy.

You can only hope he’ll love you long enough for you to get your shit together and not want to kill him anymore.

• • •

Memories are a tricky thing.

You decide to spend your days with Frank, hunting down various people who worked with The Doctor. You talk a lot about your memories with him. And no matter what, at the end of the day, you have dinner with Matt.

One night, he brings home Thai Food.

“We had this for our first date,” he recalls. “You got pad Thai, your favorite.” You try to recall the memory.

“You wore a nice blue button up, right?” You say softly. He smiles gently and nods.

“Yeah. I did.” He says gently.

“Can..” You hesitate. “Can you tell me more about it? Our life together? I can’t.. discern between what’s real and fabricated.” You’re making new memories, sure, but you know he misses the life the two of you had together.

But he’s caught off guard by your request. For the past few weeks, you’ve been hesitant to indulge in any memories you think might be real.

“You used to work for me.” He tells you. “Not in a weird way, but our office is small. We fell in love over Thai food and opening statements.”

“Why did you want to marry me?”

He hesitates for a second, not wanting to scare you off.

“Because I love you.” He tells you. “Because when you were with me, it was the closest thing I’d ever knew to peace.” He confesses.

“Oh..”

“Yeah.” He takes another bite of his food. “You know if you have a memory and you don’t know if it’s real, you can always ask.”

You smile softly.

“Thanks.” There’s a soft silence that fills the room before you ask, “I have this memory of us in bed, with you running your hand through my hair.. Your fingers tracing these antlers I have.. Is that real?”

“Yeah, it is..” He promised. “I have a thing about textures and your hair is soft.”

“I’m glad.” You smile. This is nice. This gentleness that’s between you. It’s a softness you aren’t used to, one that you don’t know if you’d ever quite get used to.

Later that night, when you were meant to be fast asleep, you wake up with a startling gasp in bed. You look around panicked. You don’t quite know who you’re looking for..

Until Matt comes into the room, a concerned look on his face.

“Are you okay?” He asks, and this calmness washes over you.

“Yeah..”

“Okay. Okay, good, I’ll be in the living room if you need me.” He says softly. He’s been so good to you, sleeping on the couch for so many weeks. He goes to leave, but you call out to him. He turns back to you.

“Can you stay with me?” You ask.

“Yeah, of course.” He says softly, climbing into bed with you. You think for a second, before shifting a bit, resting your head against his chest. You listen to the gentle thud of his heartbeat, as his hand finds your back, gently rubbing up and down. “Do you want to talk about it?”

He isn’t dumb—He knows you have nightmares. And that on the nights that you do, you’re quieter and more avoidant of him. It’s a bad habit, one you want to break. Because you recognize that your dreams aren’t real.

Matt has never done anything to you, and you’re sure of this.. For the most part. Sometimes when you wake up, you must reorient yourself and remind yourself that Matt has no malicious intent towards you and no reason to hurt you.

But it takes you a few minutes to accomplish this. On those mornings, you tend to keep your distance from him, and because Matt wants nothing but your happiness, he stays away from you. But tea is always placed in front of you, and he never strays far from you.

“Not really.” You finally answer. There’s another beat of silence. “We went as the couple from The Princess Bride for our first Halloween together.. Real or not real?”

“Real.” He confirms.

“You broke my nose once during an argument. Real or not real?”

“Not real.” He tells you. “I would never hurt you. Even when we used to fight at the gym, it was always for practice, never to do actual damage. And when we would spar, it would always end with us going home and taking a hot bath.”

You close your eyes, trying to recall that particular memory. When you find it, your face flushes with this unfamiliar heat.

“You’re still trying to protect me even though I wanted you dead... Real or not real?”

“Real.” He doesn’t even hesitate. He’s not sure if you’ve realized it yet, but he’d rather die than put you anywhere close to being in danger. His hand continues to trace patterns into your skin, as you think about his response.

You fall asleep like this, close to the man who you’re realizing has never intended to hurt you a day in your life.

• • •

The day you realize you’re in love with your husband is horrifying.

Which seems like a crazy accusation to make, and yet, you feel nothing but horror when you realize that you are desperate for him. Which is insane, because you’ve been living with him for two months when you realize you are desperate to kiss him like you’re drowning and need air.

It happens at the office. You decided to cook, because you remember really liking it, and to say thank you for all he’s done for you, you want to bring lunch to Matt at work. So you make this really delicious chicken pesto pasta, and you pick up sodas to go along with it. Matt gets the following text:

‘Your favorite soda is Dr. Pepper. Real or not real?’

Five minutes later, you get a response.

‘Real. Yours is sprite.’

You pick up a bottle of each and head over to his office. You’ve been there a few times before, but mostly it was because Frank needed to talk to Karen about something, but lately you’ve found yourself wanting to go to the office just to see Matt.

Matt is surprised when he hears the familiar beat of your heart on the other side of the door. He can also hear the slight buzz of your hearing aids.

“Sweetheart, you can come in.” He calls, but you hesitate even further. Not because you’re confused as to why he knows it’s you, but because your brain sort of short circuits when he calls you the pet name. But after a few minutes, you walk into the room and place lunch on his desk, as well with your drinks.

“Do you like pesto?”

“We had pesto pasta at our wedding.” Oh.

“So you do?”

“Yeah, I do. Especially the way you make it.”

“Oh, good.” You smile and sit at the chair on the other side of the desk. “Because I made chicken pesto pasta for lunch and figured you might want some.”

“Well, thank you for thinking of me.”

There’s a quiet calm between the two of you.

“This is a pretty killer first date, huh?” This makes Matt laugh, because in his mind, your first date was eating Thai food and listening to music. But this isn’t bad either.

“Well, Chivalry must be dead then, because I didn’t even buy you flowers.” He hums, and you tilt your head.

“I don’t remember you ever buying me flowers.” He frowns at this.

“Well, I’m going to have to fix that.”

And that’s how the afternoon goes. You sit with Matt in his office, eating a homemade chicken pasta and falling in love with him. As you go to leave, he asks you what you have planned for the day.

“I have some errands to run, but I should be home to make dinner.” And for a moment, Matt forgets all that’s happened, and he lets himself believe that you have all your memories of him perfectly intact and no one’s ever made you think otherwise.

You get back to the apartment a few hours later, and just as you’re unpacking your groceries, there’s a knock at the door. When you open it, a delivery man stands with a bouquet of flowers. Your face is warm as you sign off on them.

As you put them in their vase, you notice a note attached to it. You catch yourself grinning as you read his little note, that reads ‘I’ll buy you flowers until I’m old and wrinkly. Real.’

The urge to run back to the office and kiss him overwhelms you.

So you call Frank.

This leads to the pair of you, sitting at a booth in a diner, nursing coffees and toast.

“I hope you didn’t call me here just to complain about married life.” He tells you, making a joke out of the thing that terrifies you.

“No, I just wanted you to sit here talking to a chick with antlers so you can look like more of a freak than you already are.” You tease.

It gets you both laughing. These moments, in between all the nightmares and all of the filmy memories, fill you with a light you can’t quite describe.

“So, why’d you really call me to meet up?” He asks. “I have to assume you don’t just want to chitchat.”

“I think I’m in love with Matt.” You tell him. He raises an eyebrow.

“What? Why does that sound like you think it’s a problem?” He asks.

“I don’t know.” You confess. “It’s like I don’t want to love him, like a part of me still believes he’s the bad guy. I know he does.. Besides, I was so awful to him for so long. I pointed a gun at him and he still comforts me every night. What if I don’t deserve this?” You ask. “What if I don’t deserve him?”

Frank actually laughs—Okay, not like a giggle or a belly laugh, but it gets a good chuckle out of him.

“You and Red with that shit—Questioning if you’ve done enough for something good to happen to you. With the ‘Do I deserve this?’ and the ‘Am I worthy of this?” He shakes his head. “All that shit is irrelevant. Do you want it? Do you want to be with him?”

Tears fill your eyes as you realize what that means.

“You and him, you love each other like breathing, and I know you don’t quite get that yet, but it’s the same reason you didn’t shoot him that day. Something in you knows that you love him and deserve his love.” Frank is speaking from experience, because he knows that no matter what he’s done, he knows he deserves one more kiss from his wife.

But he’ll never get that chance.

He hopes Matt does.

• • •

It takes you a long time to make your way back to the apartment. When you get there, Matt immediately stands from his place on the couch and has this look of concern etched across his face.

“Is everything okay?” he asks gently, “Your heart is racing, I just want to make sure you’re safe and—"

“I’m fine.” You smile gently. “Really, I… Thank you for the flowers.” You tell him. His face softens.

“You like them?”

“I love them, Matt.” You confess. “I’ve spent.. So long trying to rationalize everything, sort out the real things from the things that aren’t..” You’re not too sure what you’re trying to say. “I just.. I want.. I want to try. I want to try and be with you, I’m ready for that. I’m ready to be happy with you..”

He hesitates. Not because he doesn’t want to, because he doesn’t want you, but he is worried that you’re only saying these things because you feel like you might owe him. You don’t. You don’t owe him anything other than what you want to give him, and he is desperate for you to know that.

“Sweetheart, You don’t.. I don’t need.. I don’t need you to pretend like you want me just because I’ve taken care of you. It’s more than enough to just—”

Matt is cut off by his first kiss from you in eight months. Your hands rest on the sides of his cheeks, and his arms are quickly around your torso. The kiss is passionate but soft at first—Until you push deeper, desperate to be as close as you can to him. Your hand even comes up to pull off his glasses to see his eyes.

Without thinking, you pull away from him only for your hand to come down to the hem of his shirt, going to pull it off.

“Off, off, off, off—” You softly request, and he just laughs, taking your hand in his, pressing a kiss to the back of it.

“Stop. Wait.” He says gently. “I just.. I want to make sure you actually want this.. That you really want me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You’ve been reserved for the past two months, rightfully so, but now you want to sleep with me.. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret. Or something you do just because you feel lonely or bad that I—” You cut him off with another kiss, breaking it shortly after.

“I want you. I want to rebuild my life with you. I want to create new, untainted memories.. It won’t be easy, but I want to be with you.” You confess. “I want countless summer nights, I want you to be there for all the nightmares, I.. I want to give you the same peace you’ve been trying to give me.”

You’re both crying and you don’t quite know why. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gold band. He slips it onto your fingers and kisses you again. He holds the hand with your wedding ring on it as he leads you into the bedroom. Into your life together. Into your arms. Where you were meant to be.

The next morning, you lay in the quiet of your apartment, the silk sheets tickling your skin. You focus on Matt’s breathing. He traces patterns into your skin.

“What are you thinking about?” You ask, and he takes a moment to answer.

“You.” He says gently. “You’re all I’ve been thinking about for three years.” He says gently. Then, when you don’t say anything, “Our anniversary was two months ago..” You know he misses the life you could have had together.

The life that he had planned out for the pair of you in his head. The life that oh so quietly, he longs for. The one without nightmares, supplemented by the laughter of any potential children you might have.

“I could get used to thinking about you, too, you know.” And it makes him laugh, as you lean up and bite his shoulder gently, before placing a kiss to that same patch of skin. He swats your arm gently before the pair of you break down into giggles.

“In the future, if you ever.. don’t want to do that, you don’t have to.”

“I know.” You tell him.

A comfortable silence fills the air again.

“I’m so happy you came back to me.” He says gently. “I was.. I spent so long worried that.. that we’d spend years just trying to find our footing again. That you wouldn’t get better..” For the second time tonight, you cut off his overthinking with a kiss.

“I love you.” You tell him when you’re finally ready to pull away. The morning light shines into the apartment, giving Matt this glowing effect. He practically shimmers in the golden light, and you just take a moment to commit the look of him to memory.

You try and take your time, studying him. He’s so beautiful this time of day.

“Real or not real?” He asks you softly, as one hand snakes up to your hair, his fingers gently running through it.

You lean forward and place a soft kiss to his lips.

“Real.”

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Aita for telling my mom not to invite grandma to my dead dad’s birthday dinner?

For context, my (19M) dad (44M) died in January of ‘24. He was a dick and I don’t miss him, but he was my mom (46F)’s husband and I’ve been there for her through the grieving process. Unfortunately, Mom’s mother (80F) has taken over my mom’s grief and has made it about her.

For what I mean, it’s that Grandma wouldn’t let my mom stand next to my dad as he was dying in the hospital bed from jaundice and cancer, was praying very loudly that her son-in-law would get better and putting her hands all over my dad’s chest, kept comparing what my dad was going through to how her 7th husband died back in ‘09 (also cancer but not the same), and overall was just obnoxious during the worst moment of my Mom’s life.

This isn’t a new thing for grandma to do. Grandma is just a dick. She’s openly racist against Asian people, she’s stupidly Homophobic (but not towards me because I’m family and I’m ber favoritr grandkid because I’m not afraid to talk smack about people who get on my nerves. barf.), and any achievement that my Mom receives, Grandma has a story about how she won something even better.

It has gotten worse when my Mom’s dad (85M) moved in with us for health reasons. Grandpa was Grandma’s 3rd husband and their marriage didn’t end amicably. Still, it’s been 40 years and Mom wants a relationship with her dad. Grandma HATES him. Constantly yelling at him for forgetting things when she comes over, brags about being there for us grandkids (I have two younger sisters) when we were little, and overall is just plain rude. My dad used to be able to just tell her to leave, but now that he’s gone, he can’t.

Well, last week would have been my dad’s 45th birthday. Mom wanted to celebrate by taking me and my youngest sister (the older sister just moved out for college and is across the country) to Dad’s favorite restaurant. As we were leaving, Mom was stressing very heavily about not inviting Grandma or Grandpa. She stressed about Grandpa because he often forgets to eat dinner and she stressed about Grandma because the old bitch has flamed my mom on Facebook for not being invited to events before, even though my mom knew that Grandma wouldn’t like those events (think late night soccer games, plays where I’m not a main role/has an 18+ theme, etc. stuff an old Christian woman who hates driving at night would hate)

I told Mom not to invite either grandparent and that the three of us (me, Mom, and little sister) should just go alone and enjoy some immediate family time. We did and we had a great time, talking with my little sister about her high school classes, talking shit about my mom’s coworkers, and me getting to infodump about Fallout because my mom just watched the tv show.

Towards the end of the night, my Mom gets a text from Grandma asking what we were up to for Dad’s birthday. I tell Mom not to answer and she doesn’t. Grandma then sends Mom a screenshot of the family Life360 map and starts sending walls off texts saying how hurt she is that she wasn’t invited, how neglected she is, how awful it is that she can’t spend time with the grandkids anymore, how Mom always prioritizes Grandpa over Grandma (he wasn’t even with us?) and shit like that. I take Mom’s phone and block Grandma for her since she’s sitting next to me, frozen and locked-up.

It’s been a week now and we haven’t spoken to Grandma. That’s fine by me, but I can see that my Mom is upset and regrets how the dinner went.

Here’s where I may be the asshole:

I was the one who said not to invite Grandma

I was the one who blocked Grandma

I butted my head into my Mom and Grandma’s relationship

Here’s why I think I’m not:

My mom has never been good at standing up for herself

My mom shouldn’t have to deal with this bullshit while grieving her fucking husband of 22 years

Not everything is about Grandma. She inserts herself into everything needlessly

TL;DR: Dad died. Went to dinner with my mom and sister to celebrate his birthday. Grandma found out and bitched a fit that she wasn’t invited. I took mom’s phone and blocked her. Now mom is stressing about losing her relationship with grandma. Aita?

[chrissdollie]

hanging out with rose and jack! (jack dawson x fem reader)

"It has always been my passion to go to America!" Fabrizio cheered in third class. You smiled brightly. Fab was one of your closest friends as well as Tommy, who you were sitting with. Jack was also present, your boyfriend of around 2 years. He wrapped his arm around you and you rested your head into his chest. "I'm thankful we made it here in time before the ship left!" You began to explain to Tommy how Jack won three tickets for Titanic in a game of poker and you only had five minutes to get to the ship. But as you were talking, Fabri and Tommy's eyes left yours. The attention was taken off you to another person walking downstairs. "Guys?" Jack's eyebrows furrowed. He turned around to see Rose standing above him, wearing an awkward smile on her face. You turned around, to see Rose and everyone else staring at her. Some sharing whispers. You were quite fond of Rose for the most part. But you could tell she had developed a little crush on Jack. Which you didn't mind at all! "Rose!" You stood up to greet her. "It's lovely to see you again, y/n!" She beamed politely. Jack rose up next to you. "Hey there, partner." He teased. Rose sucked in a breath. Was she nervous? "Hello, Jack." She cleared her throat. "May I speak to you?" She lowered her tone slightly so only the two of you could hear. "Sure, go ahead." Jack put his hands in the pockets of his worn out pants. You felt a little awkward standing there. The room was almost dead silent. "Erm.. I meant in private." She corrected. Heads were then turned to you, including Jack's. You smiled. "Sure, go ahead! I'll find you guys later." You leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Alright. See you later sweetheart." He kissed your head and quickly waved goodbye to Tommy and Fab. As he walked out with Rose, you waved and yelled "ROSE!" Her head snapped to you, concerned. Jack was frightened too. "Yes?" She asked, worriedly. "I like your dress." You giggled. Scaring Rose was always fun. But you weren't lying. Her satin green dress was gorgeoussss. She chuckled and rolled her eyes, walking out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jack and Rose were walking around the deck talking about the weather, about how Jack met you, and his childhood. Up until when Rose got all upset about something silly and snatched his sketchbook. He almost giggled laughed at her childish behavior. But he didn't really mind. She sat down on a lounge chair to skim through the book of topless girls Jack had drawn. Still frustrated, Rose tried to find an insult about the drawings. But couldn't. "These..." She turned the page as Jack sat down across from her on another chair. "These are quite good. Actually very good. You should sell these." She complimented. "Yeah, well, they didn't think too much of 'em in old Paris." She nodded. After turning another page or two, she began to find beautiful art of you. "But I mostly do it for my own enjoyment now." He told her, sheepishly smiling just at the thought of you. She continued turning the pages just to find that the rest of the book was all you. You were stunning, she had absolutely no problem admitting it. Nonetheless, she loved this art style and wanted it for herself. She was tired of being drawn like a porcelain doll. But she'd bring that up later. Suddenly, your cheery voice was heard calling their names. The two turned, squinting their eyes because of the sunlight and seeing you running towards them. "Hi! There... there were ehm.." You panted, trying to catch your breath. Jack grinned, helping you sit down and rubbed your back soothingly. But not for long as you turned to him and Rose, stopping his motions. "There were free biscuits downstairs. Some kind lady was handing them out. So I took one of course." You paused, making a gross face at the thought. "But it's utterly disgusting! It must've been the worst thing I've ever eaten. It was hard and tasted like metal!" You stuck your tongue out, still tasting it. Tommy on the other hand, loved the biscuits. So, you and many others gave him yours, much to his delight.

Jack put his feet up either side of yours which were hanging off the side of the chair. He held onto your back and rested his chin on your shoulder lovingly. "Oh! My drawings." You cheesed, looking at the book in Rose's hands. "Hm?" The redhead hummed, looking down. "Oh, yes, I was just returning them." She threw the book onto the chair you and Jack were sat on, hitting his back slightly to which he dramatically cried out, gaining others' attention. He fell flat on his back against the chair with a hand over his forehead and his eyes shut tightly. Rose was not amused, you could tell. But you were, of course. "Oh, I'm wounded! She's killed me!" He grabbed your arm and yanked you down, resulting in a small shriek. You began giggling (his favorite sound). "Only true love's kiss can save me now." He puckered his lips excessively, leaning in. You put a your finger in front of his mouth, blocking him. You steered your head to Rose. "Want to go for a stroll?" You offered gleefully. Jack rolled his eyes. He just wanted a kiss :( but most of the time you don't kiss him in front of other people because then it turns into a make out and it's rude blah blah blah.. Rose nodded standing up and ready to go. "I just want your loveeeee is that so terrible?" He clinged onto you, teasing. You grinned. You would have gave in if Rose wasn't there. It would've been rude and impolite! So you made a mental note to shower him with love later. Then the two of you stood up and walked around the ship with Rose. She began ranting about how she hates her life. "My dream has always been to just run away and become an artist! Poor, but free!" She laughed. Jack scoffed cheekily. "Listen, princess. You wouldn't last two days without any hot water and hardly any caviar." He joked. You let out a breathy chuckle at his humor. However, Rose was insulted. "I happen to hate caviar." She told him. "And I hate people telling me what dreams I should and shouldn't have!" "Good for you, Rose!" You smiled. She nodded her head quickly, a little embarrassed. "You're right, I'm sorry." Jack apologized. He forgot that he'd just met Rose and didn't understand a lot about her yet. For example, he's known you for three wonderful years. And he's learned a lot about your body language, things you're sensitive to, etc. "Well.. alright." She accepted. "Everybody expects me to be this delicate little flower which I'm not! I'm sturdy, I'm as strong as a horse! I'm here to do something. Not just sit around and be decorative. You see this hands?" She held her hands out. "These hands were made for work. Real work." She rambled angrily. The three of you were stopped when a man came up to Rose holding a tray with a teapot and cups. "Care for something, miss? We have tea and billiard." He offered. She scoffed, annoyed. "NO!" She dramatically replied. Jack laughed loudly, causing you to smile a little bit too. You actually felt a little bad for the guy. You three continued walking. "There's something in me. I don't know what exactly it is, but I can feel it. Whether I should be an artist or a sculptor or a.. a dancer! Vague and spirit." "Or a moving picture artist!" She giggled and ran ahead of you two. She leaned against a broad white pillar as a man used a film to photograph her. You and Jack stood behind him, watching her. "I'm glad she's having a good time with us." You mentioned to Jack. The night where Jack came running back into your room late at night to tell you about a young girl who tried to jump off the ship shocked you. But what was even more interesting is that Jack saved her life and got you two invited to dinner. "I'm proud of you." You looked into his beautiful eyes. He smiled ear to ear and kissed you. a/n: WAS IT GOOD WAS IT BAD LMKKK i'm actually kind of proud of this 👀 ik it’s short, it’s only 1.2k words but it was still fun to write! (BTW i have requests open)

[pepsiiwho]

ROMANCE REAL!

I'm a heinous, devious multi-shipper and I always have been and always will be but for now I won't get into sleep's harem. Right now I'm just gonna word vomit about my two biggest Hypnos ships and what im thinking of writing for them with the information we have currently with the new teaser.

If you don't like Zagnos, Arenos or Hypnos getting some well deserved loving (in which case, you can fuck off now) then skip this one. If you'd like to avoid spoilers for my next possible wip (not that this is nearly coherent enough to explain anything I'll write) run away. Now.

Okay. Anyway. Hi true believers.

So, the dynamics of both ships are different to me fundementally but on the outside they look incredibly similar (I have a type). the basics being that Zagreus and Hypnos is more a will they/ won't they childhood friend romance with a twist of like "you stole my whole family and I resent you for that" and "you're the one person in this literal hell hole I can't just fix and it's driving me crazy". Initially Zagreus was like, the one constant nice, polite and understanding person Hypnos had in his corner. Because of like 3 lines of dialogue in the first game (of which I shan't even speak!) I fell out of love with the ship just because of how jarring and heart breaking it was. But I have love for them and have worked in tandem with cano, for once in my life, and can fix it all.

This was a long way to say, Zagnos exs. They dated and it was great. Very puppy love but after a point Hypnos got comfortable enough that he felt discontent with the fact his boyfriend was more beloved in his family then he was. They clash over it, Hypnos gets upset that zagreus gets THREE sets of families, HYP'S INCLUDED, while Hypnos can barely manage one on a good day and Zagreus just does NOT get it. Eventually they break up because they're just too different. Hypnos bows out, in his self-deprecating way, and they're done. Considering the second game, I think this happens shortly before Mel is born/ or conceived. One of the two because news/birth is a whirlwind that takes all of Zag's attention so they have a lot of unfinished business.

Obviously the titans attack only like a year or so after Mel is born and then everything goes to shit and my scene of the escape happens. At this point, Zagreus is still very in love with Hypnos— he never really stopped oops— but their time has run out and it's too late. He goes into the fray. Womp womp. We're caught up.

Arenos, on the other hand, was always an escape from the mess of the house and the family drama happening there. Hypnos the forgotten and unloved son paired up with Ares the forgotten and unloved son. They are very different yet have a shared loneliness no one else really gets? It helps Ares has his weird fixation on the chatonic gods and their entire lineage. So they meet at the post game dinner and Ares is instantly smitten and wants to wisk Hypnos away. This is, surprisingly, the significantly more affectionate and fluffier ship in my mind. He wants to adore his god and obsess over him as Hypnos deserves. Ares is a lover boy to me and Someone who's been deprived of such love his whole life needs someone who's too enthusiastic about his mere existence. Anyway, when the titans attack and Hypnos gets out with Mel, he loses contact with Olympus because they go off the grid and he's too weak to reach ares in his dreams or anything. Until Mel begins communication with her kin up top, Ares assumes Hypnos is dead. He is not normal about it. WOO!

Which brings us to now. The scene I have in mind is post game or like later in the game? In this idea Zagreus has been freed and olympians can come and go from the crossroads without alerting the enemy faction.

The concept for both ships is the same: X goes to crossroads and finds Hypnos sleeping, unwoken for (long period of time here) and unreachable. Im imagining the scene from Snow White. X walks up, ruminates on Hypnos and their past together and then kisses him before crumpling on his sleeping form, overcome with grief.

Naturally, the grief is different. Zagreus for lost love. For another thing lost to him through this conflict but due to his own negligence, not the Titan's whims. He chose to ostracize his love, he chose to ignore him when they were all of 30ft away from each other at any given time. His Hypnos, his sleep, who protected his little sister and (perhaps) helped guide his family to safety/defeat the titans whatever. The fates were as cruel as ever.

Ares, in my mind, would find Hypnos earlier. Before the titans are defeated fully. Seeing his lord sleep, his beloved, his heart and dreams left comatose and out of his reach enrages him. He has a new resolve coming out of the meeting, unable to do anything but wish for the utter decimation of any and all against him and the head of whoever put his love in this position.

The crossroad I'm at though (ha) is If true loves kiss can prevail... I love happy fluff good ends but tragedy is so lovely... Id love to hear other's thoughts as well. Feel free to send asks to continue the convo or reply ... or tags of course... sigh... they're so important. Also more Hypnos ships soon.. first on the block: Apollo and Hermes!

[majorasnightmare]

okay so like. mizora

im pretty sure we're in agreement that the conditions for wylls pact were sus as fuck right? like there just happened to be a fully formed cult to tiamat rarin to go right outside baldurs gate mid ritual, and the home of high harper and nosy grandma JAHEIRA didnt notice shit?? nobody saw anything and no one could confirm wylls story despite baldurs gate having an active enough night life to sustain 7 actively hunting vampire spawn for at LEAST 200 years AND a sewer murder cult committing covert assassinations and murder sprees??? with a cult of bane conducting weapons trade deals and the knights of the shield operating a smuggling ring??? the flaming fist didnt even see anything to pointedly ignore??? not a single chickenshit recruit filed a report about observing a dragons head in the night sky with a filed dismissal by a senior officer claiming they probably drank too much. Saitama_Okay.jpg

im personally of the opinion that zariel didnt stage that particular incident but DID utilize agents to provoke tiamats cult into action while also stifling potential witnesses. we know raphael does similar because of his stupid chess themed letters to his own agents, so its not unreasonable to suspect zariel is doing the same. but i think the REAL prize of that particular operation was not the destruction of an active tiamat cult, but instead something more subtle and with a potentially higher payoff: the ear of duke ravengards son. a dragon cult getting annhilated was a bonus, and a convenient call to action besides

mizora, by karlachs admission, was part of zariels personal inner circle (by choice, as devils are ambitious creatures with a drive to climb the ladder). this means that, through mizora, zariel herself took direct personal interest in wyll ravenguard. wyll himself was only 17 years old by this point: he had yet to achieve anything of note and was drifting through noble highborn society as the odd man out, son to a lowborn duke who rised through meritocracy and raised to appreciate the down-to-earth rural pasttimes his father grew up with, like fishing. wyll himself had nothing to offer to a devil besides his heritage; baldurs gate is full enough of self sacrificing do-gooders to keep the harpers regularly staffed, and The Urge regularly sated. for mizora to target wyll specifically makes the most sense if the real target was his connection to the current grand duke of baldur's gate, a city home to a practicing diabolist, several evil cults, and itself has been a hotbed of planar activity thanks to the dead threes meddling for YEARS. that ulder also commands the flaming fist, the gates de facto policing force, is also a point to consider.

this is also reflected in wylls pact, and the terms we experience of it. wyll specifically states that the terms of his pact primarily target the evil, the monstrous, and the heartless. remember, this is BEFORE he was the blade of frontiers. he became a warlock 7 years before the game, but only became the Blade five years prior to the plot. thats a two year gap of being a warlock but not the blade, where his pact STILL primarily targeted monsters. this is. a REALLY weird pact for a devil to offer! like firstly, its overwhelmingly in wylls favor. there is very little wyll does FOR mizora, and the targets she assigns to wyll near exclusively align with his moral code. he sees no reason to doubt mizoras portrayal of karlach, and has to be prompted into sparing her even as he hesitates, because past experience has told him that mizoras targets DO deserve to be slain as judged by HIS beliefs, as indicated by his line of participating in a mummers farce, and him playing his part all too poorly. wylls upset at himself for not thinking to question mizoras target and considering his hunt of karlach to be just. clearly thats because, in every other instance, wyll believed that to be the case!

thats REALLY FUCKIN WEIRD for a devil! like yes mizora gets to take down political rivals using wyll, because wyll knows devils are evil, but. thats a really weird pact to sign in return for destroying a cult mid god summon? like you could extort a LOT more for that and be assured youd get it, cuz its ALL OF BALDURS GATE and the RETURN OF TIAMAT on the line. and it doesnt seem to be a case of poor dealmaking, unlike raphael, whos every deal overwhelmingly reeks of desperation. he'll translate astarions back if you kill yurgir, because he really really really needs you to kill yurgir before he figures out raphael played him and he gets out because of it, and the clock is rapidly ticking down on that because balthazar is already in the temple, interacting with the dark justiciar skeletons, and actively looking for yurgir because the orthons annoying him. we are literally a single step removed from balthazar casually dropping the fact theres a dark justiciar hivemind in the bodies of 100 rats and raphael getting his ass beat for setting yurgir up. raphael really really wants you to hate the emperor and free orpheus because the only bargaining chip he has is the hammer, and in the midst of THAT deal literally spells out its location for you and why youd want it, for free. raphael the crown of karsus is almost in reach but to defeat the absolute ill need the plastic card you dad keeps in his wallet, make sure you send me the 16 numbers on the front, the 3 on the back, and the expiration date! hurry raphael we dont have much time!

comparitively mizora only ever bargains from a perceived position of strength. she can afford to make demands of wyll because he has no way to stop tiamats summoning without her. then, later, she has the easiest and most accessible source of information for wylls father knowing his life is in danger as a political prisoner. these are very strong bargaining positions! shes only ever undercut by the players presence bargaining on wylls behalf. its a quick and easy way to show that her inflated opinion of herself isnt entirely without merit, although her second pact is framed as choosing between two potential agreements, save wyll and kill ulder, or save ulder and damn wyll, when in reality shes proposing a new pact that has no authority over wyll OR ulder until signed (which is why you can save ulder because she doesnt actually have the pact given authority to insta kill him the way she implies, she can only throw thwartable assassins at him like anyone else with a grudge). shes a manipulator with plenty of skin in the game and a good amount of success behind her that justifies her position within zariels court. the point of this is make a point of highlighting how *little* mizora actually fucks with wyll *as enabled by the terms of the pact*. mizora is cruel, she is manipulative, she is condescending and rude, and she makes wylls life awful with her presence, but takes very few ACTIONS towards those ends, and relies primarily on verbally demeaning him. when he violates a clause in their pact, mizora utilizes a loophole to make karlach qualify by its terms and then punishes wyll by infusing his soul with infernal essence. thats... really it. you can watch wyll backtalk her, but she doesnt even do that leash yank she does in act 1. if you blenderize her, wyll dies by the pacts terms, but like. mizora literally also dies, and is REALLY upset by it to boot. you break wylls pact, tell mizora to fuck off with her second one, and she just kinda stomps her foot and fucks off for a bit before loitering in your camp still. as a warlock you can even mention to wyll that she very easily could have snatched his soul about the karlach thing but she doesnt.

in terms of "classic warlock struggles" we barely see mizora do anything beyond being an Unpleasant Person wyll is forced to interact with. theres none of the classic "being compelled to do something evil for self serving ends at risk of suffering The Horrors", mizora barely even tries to corrupt him. wyll is never forced by mizora into circumstances where he has to evaluate his code of ethics against an action he needs to take and decide what parts of his moral code he needs to capitulate on and what to keep, wyll keeps almost every single line in the sand he ever draws! his biggest character conflicts are actually between his OWN ideals, whether to live within the heroic persona of the Blade of Frontiers, or to accept his own capability of failings and live as Wyll Ravengard. like. being a warlock barely factors at all into those decisions and the closest it comes to mattering is choosing whether or not wyll breaks his pact or saves his father, which you can expose as a false choice by just rescuing his dad anyways. mizora exerts that little influence over wylls interior world. for a literal devil on his shoulder, bargaining from the greatest position of strength a negotiator could ask for, that is so fucking WEIRD.

okay thats a whole lotta post pointing out that mizoras motivations for even makin the damn pact in the first place needs examining, so now several paragraphs in let me actually get to what i MEANT to talk about. so firstly weve established that 17 yr old wyll doesnt have anything unique to entice a devil beyond his connection to the grand duke. weve established that the pact is weirdly in wylls favor, and that its pointedly not a Skill Issue but seems to be intentional, and furthermore that the POINT of the pact doesnt seem to be corrupting a good soul into the embrace of the Hells to make a new devil, because the pact seems to be made to allow wyll to just Be Himself comfortably without much internal conflict or moral sacrifice. we know that wyll made the pact before he became the blade of frontiers, and thus the pact was not made with the Blade of Frontiers persona in mind, which removes another layer of potential justification for the extremely loose terms of the pact. we know zariel is interested in wyll through the usage of mizora as his patron, and we know that stopping the summoning of tiamat without any external aid from the myriad conflicting interests within baldurs gate almost definitely necessitated a good amount of smokescreen work behind the scenes, but also that it most likely wasnt staged in its entirely because it benefits zariel to thwart tiamats ambitions. so. why is wyll ravengard a warlock pacted to mizora? i suggest the following hypothetical: that mizoras goal, and by extension zariels, was to have a morally agreeable framework within which to make a pact with duke ravengards son, such that hed be guaranteed to agree to it, and then to hide the evidence of the pacts circumstances to allow themselves greater reign to act within baldurs gate. that the goal was to have a devil on the shoulder of the dukes son, to push their relationship into strain so as to make ulder ravengards behavior more predictable and thus vulnerable to manipulation, and that through mizora (through wyll), zariel would have a first hand source to the inner political workings of baldurs gate, and the movements of the flaming fist and the goals they were pursuing. through the fist, zariel could keep track of the cult elements they were investigating (and thus what rivals need deposing), and through wyll and his father, zariel could monitor the movements of the gates upper class and utilize mizoras skillset to ingratiate wyll further into high society and put him in close proximity to those capable of mustering meaningful resistance to an influx of infernal influence. wylls relationship to his father prior to his pact was good, we know ulder was a firm but loving father and that wyll was generally well liked in baldurs gate in general, and that wyll openly admired his father and sought to follow in his footsteps. it is in fact extremely reasonable to suspect that such a good relationship was more than a single incident away from breaking. its in fact more reasonable to presume that a major political figure would be aware of the adage of keeping ones friends close, and enemies closer, such that you could monitor their movements. its reasonable to believe that one would assume good intentions on the part of ones son, who himself has made it known that he desires to be like you. to assume, in good faith, that even with all signs of dragoncult activity removed, that ones son clearly lost his eye and gained new scars *somehow*, through *some* kind of incident related to his new fiend pact. all of these are logical and reasonable things to assume and plan for, when you have made a point of manipulating people, of reading their intentions and catering to them like a monkeys paw.

that ulder ravengard would not just chastise wyll, but banish him from baldur's gate entirely, must have been a horrible shock, not just for wyll, but for mizora. i doubt the uneventful two year gap between taking the pact and becoming the blade was purposeful. it makes more sense to interpet that as mizora simply having no fucking idea what to do with her warlock now, as the pact she dictated (designed so that wyll never felt it was unjust enough to make a point of breaking it, no matter how often he thought of doing so, because it was so in favor of him and aligned with his moral code), simply had no vehicles for any of the usual courses of action. cant force wyll into tricky moral quandries, because she can only ask him to kill evil, infernal, monstrous, or heartless beasts. cant ostracize him through the pact to isolate and grind him down, wyll cant talk about it. what do you even do? now your both stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the pact to show for it

and heres where i veer into hot take interpretation country. i think mizora genuinely likes wyll. when you blenderize her in moonrise towers (before reloading a previous save ofc), her screams are oddly... genuine? confused, frightened, upset. its odd than an otherwise vindictive and catty individual isnt angry upon being killed, but confused and hurt sounding. i think in a lot of ways mizora both relies on the consistency of wylls moral code, while also considering it a hinderance, not to her plans (thoroughly derailed thanks to one ulder ravengard) but to wylls own personal development as a person. shes a devil, she doesnt have the kind of personality where she can be genuine and vulnerable and kind. but she was stuck as the only authority figure wyll had to rely on, for seven whole years, after being kicked out of the only life he ever knew and the only home he ever had. i think in a weird fucked up way, she really does want whats best for him, its just that her opinion of that is filtered through the lens of Literally Being A Devil. none of this is to say she was *good* to wyll. how wyll feels about mizora is pretty blatantly stated, and would be a much shorter post, and im not here to interrogate that or question it, because being stuck with a devil who can use your eye to spy on you is just an awful experience even without regular verbal degradation on top of it. im mostly just intrigued by the other end of that relationship. mizora clearly cares enough about keeping wyll as a warlock to go as far as trying to make a second pact with him if you succeed in negotiating the first one to be broken. which, as weve established above, is really weird because Wyll himself brings next to nothing a devil would value to the table. Mizora isnt trying to corrupt him into breaking his ethics, really the only thing she pushes is sacrificing his father instead, a decision a recruited minthara finds value in as "patricide is often the first step to greatness". i think mizora might have ulterior motives for wanting ulder ravengard dead, and i think its because she believes that wylls love for his father is holding him back. any time wyll is selfish in pushing back on her, mizora indicates some measure of being impressed on wylls behalf. if you encourage wyll to not sign the second pact, mizora taunts him with his fathers death but still says shes genuinely impressed that hes choosing himself over his father

genuinely i think what mizora wants is for wyll to become a more assertive person. a more selfish, self interested, less heroic, less self sacrificing individual. i think mizora considers wylls tendency to bend over backwards to help people to be actively detrimental to him, and i think shes invested in his growth as a person by virtue of being a guide and companion for seven of the loneliest years of wylls life, and in a fucked up devil kind of way i think she invests her pride into it. that, with her plans so thoroughly mangled, the LEAST she can do is forge wyll into a warlock worth the cost. wyll has so much potential he refuses to take, as minthara (another ambitious prideful character) will note, and its explicitly because he would rather give something up than take for himself. i think thats part of why mizora is so cruel and demeaning towards him, to try and push wyll to be pettier or more spiteful, instead of endlessly self sacrificing for the benefit of others, and this is even consistent with her punishment of wyll! she turns him into a devil and specifically notes that he wont be able to be the heroic persona The Blade of Frontiers anymore! ie the facade thats swallowed up wyll ravengard completely at the beginning of the story! i think her investment in wyll as a person is why shes so upset if you kill her at moonrise, because i think she genuinely thought that wyll would always save her and turning him into a lemure was a kind of bluff she didnt expect to cash in.

this would also explain why the terms of her second pact are so comically extreme. eternal damnation and serving zariel forever in return for maybe possibly getting to save ulder from a dangerous situation where he might die anyways from the absolute crisis and WILL die in a few decades from old age even if all goes well? its almost like shes taunting wyll. give it up, give up everything youve ever worked for and sacrifice everything you want to achieve to lock yourself into the worst evil you can think of for someone who banished you who might not even survive anyways. make this overwhelmingly stupid self sacrifice because thats just what you do wyll, never think of yourself or whats best for you, only other people, trade away all of eternity for the CHANCE of someone else getting another day, if THAT. this contract is so blatantly overwhelmingly unfair i DARE you to think so little of yourself youd agree to it. of course she wont congratulate him for choosing himself over his father, shes a devil and she has to rub salt in the wound, but that doesnt mean she disapproves of the choice. the only way wyll ever gets away from her is by thinking of himself and mizora takes every chance she gets to punish him for sacrificing himself and i think its because she knows he can do more if he just takes it for himself instead of passing it up. its the only kind of affection a devil can have. and every time i sit there and talk wyll through breaking his pact at moonrise and bully mizora into giving him a rapier (one of the best in the game, made specifically for wyll, made specifically out of his pact, when she doesnt have to give him anything and least of all something good, how its a reward specifically for wanting more from her and demanding it and not letting a circumstance where you have power over her go), i keep seeing hints of it underneath the surface.

a genuine devilish compassion for a warlock who rightfully loathes her, a loathing she encourages whenever she can. does wyll need an enemy to keep him from getting complacent? something to strive for thats just for his own benefit? it doesnt benefit anyone else for wyll to break his pact. most people benefit from him keeping it. its why he HAS kept it, all these years, despite hating mizora. i think mizoras taken it upon herself to do what the duke refuses to, and thats making sure Wyll becomes someone who can thrive in the world as she understands it. someone who has the ambition to reach higher, someone selfish enough to step on somebody else to get what they need, someone who refuses to get themselves killed just for somebody elses sake, somebody who doesnt give unless they receive in equal or greater value. someone who sees a situation where they have power, where someone needs them, and gets all they can out of it. and if not for people they want to protect, then at LEAST exploiting the people they HATE. does mizora demean him so much so that wyll is more comfortable firing back? so that wyll doesnt have to feel like hes becoming a worse person if he treats her as bad as he gets? if he treats his help as conditional, for her and only her, does he get to walk away feeling like he hasnt done anything wrong because he knows mizora does worse, and more often, and at least wyll will eventually help?

when he breaks his pact, and tells her no, he wont sign another, when he saves his father anyways, when he tells her off and gets everything he wants without sacrificing a damn thing, underneath the bluster and rage, is mizora proud of him?

things to consider sometime.

[tj-dragonblade]

Hi! I'd like to hear something about the fishbowl therapy fic, please!

Ah, this is probably my favorite year-old idea that I really want to write but haven't quite gotten around to. I like the concept, I like the visuals that I've got in head, but so much of the necessary conversations just fizzle when I try to flesh them out. I'm sure I can get it right if I focus on it long enough, though. The long rambly synopsis with a tiny snippet of drafting included:

Sometime after their 2022 reunion, with more frequent meetings etc, Dream finally tells Hob why he missed their 1989 meeting. And Hob is very much Not Okay about it. He has so many feelings - the horror of his friend having been held captive that long, rage on Dream's behalf, self-recrimination that he didn't know, he could have done something if he'd known, and a crushing guilt over every unkind thought he had after 1989 (never mind that he got over them, he still thought them in the first place and his friend was stuck in a glass cage while Hob was wallowing in self-pity and uncharitable assumptions).

But Hob stuffs all his feelings about this down inside, because what kind of friend would he be to make Dream's trauma-sharing all about his own reaction? So he tries very hard to keep his own feelings out of the conversation, aside from some commiserative vindication when Dream confirms that everyone who held him is either dead or dealt with.

But he is Extremely Upset about it all evening, and ends up dreaming about it. Dream catches awareness of his distress, visits the dream. He didn't give Hob specifics in their conversation, 'a glass cage' and 'basement' were the key details and Hob has dreamed up something akin to a zoo exhibit - the cage is rectangular, three glass walls attached to a fourth stone wall, roomy enough to pace about in, a proper semblance of a bed in one corner. Dream watches as Hob stands on the outside, talking to the dream-version of Dream inside the cell - a Dream who still has his clothes, he had not shared that detail with Hob either - and makes himself known after only a moment. Hob is apologetic, he's so sorry he's making this all about himself, but Dream is…pleased, by his distress. 'Pleased' is not quite the word, but it is comforting to know that someone is so upset on his behalf. He takes the place of his dream-self within the cell, urges Hob to continue, to tell him everything he's held back. It's easy to be detached from the memory when the setting is wrong, and he is warmed despite everything at how vehemently Hob insists he would have come, how sorry he is for thinking Dream had chosen to stay away, etc etc. Eventually they are talking about how Dream is coping with it, is he healing from his trauma, and of course he says it does not bother him, but Hob is like 'If I'd spent more than a hundred years cooped up in this -' gesturing at the spacious cage he's envisioned '- I'd be - I'd be something. I wouldn't just be okay about it.' And Dream, feeling peevish and daring, decides to push.

"It was not like this," he says. "You dream it too kind."

Hob blinks at him. "…What?"

"You dream it too kind," Dream repeats. "Shall I show you the truth of it?"

"I…okay," Hob agrees, foreboding and unease in his tone, and Dream shifts the basement around them. With less than a thought he is naked in the suspended glass orb again, the painted stars mocking him from above and the the binding circle a sickly glow beneath him, the dank reaches of the underbelly of Fawney Rig stretching into infinity in every direction. Hob stumbles back a step with a shocked cry, horror flooding his features; he nearly flails backwards into the moat and steps forward again, stumbles to his knees, staring up at Dream with tears flooding his eyes.

"What the fuck—god, Dream—!"

And while he's processing all over again the full depth of the horror that was done to his friend, Dream is feeling something akin to panic creeping over him now that he's here again. He is less okay than he thought he was, the memory is pressing in again, and he focuses on Hob's distress to mitigate his own. There's gotta be a moment of both of them pressing hands to the glass; they get to a point where Hob just sort of spirals into a frenzy of 'gotta get you out, gotta get you out' that feeds Dream's own latent panic that he's definitly not giving in to, never mind that he can't stop repeating 'Free me, Hob, free me' (?) over and over. Hob's scrabbling about for anything that might help him break the glass and shortly dreams up a crowbar; he scrambles to his feet and starts swinging. It's thick glass, and magical etc, and it takes Hob whaling on it quite a lot before it begins to crack, and plenty more hits before it shatters. Whereupon Dream drops to the floor, free, unbothered by the broken glass all around. Hob suddenly has a jacket so that he can take it off and wrap it around Dream, and somewhere in the surging relief of the re-enacted rescue Hob just flings his arms around Dream and kisses him. Dream is taken by surprise, but things are definitely falling into place for him and he kisses back. Hob jerks back, doing a full 'oh shit I kissed him my secret's out I've ruined everything' kind of take; Dream just grabs the front of his shirt and yanks him back down, kisses him again.

There is a little more conversation here in the dream as heat and realization build; then Dream, 'weary of this wretched basement' and wanting Hob to remember all of this, ends the dream and manifests in Hob's bed as Hob wakes. There is sex and conversation to finish it out, Dream finally voicing out loud how much it means that there is someone who would have come for him, who will come to his defense no matter how unnecessary, who thinks he's worth the effort of rescuing.

Like I said, I stumble over the conversations somewhat and that makes it easy to let this one languish in the depths of the wip file. All that Hob-pov exposition at the beginning isn't really part of it either, since this will be Dream's pov, but I've got to convey all that via Hob talking to dream-Dream and then actual-Dream in the dream itself. I'll get it all ironed out one day. Hopefully.

[sunnyy3d]

All I Want for Christmas is You|

Thomas Thorne x Reader

A/N: I wrote this incredibly late (like I’m posting it at 12:30 Christmas morning) so I hope you enjoy it, and it doesn’t suck… I also had to try and post this at least three different times, so that’s great. Anyways, merry Christmas! Requests open!

"Wake up, it is Christmas!" Thomas gently shakes me awake. I open my eyes to see his bright smile above me. I love waking up beside him every morning, even if we are dead. "Oh, I cannot wait for you to see your gift," he states as he ushers me out of the bed. Thankfully, I am already fully dressed, so I can go straight to the family room where everyone will be waiting.

Usually, I dread the upcoming holidays. There's not much that you can do as a ghost. There's no Christmas dinner, gifts, Christmas crackers, or anything of the sort. The most you can do is participate in one of Pat's games or talks. But that all changed when Allison showed up. She helped us start to enjoy Christmas again. Before Allison, the ghosts and I would just hand out and play some of Pat's games. And then after, Thomas and I would do something special together.

Because of Allison, we've been able to do much more for Christmas. Allison can help with gifts, and we can do more traditions than just Pat's made-up games. I mean, no hate to Pat, but after so many years, you just yearn for more.

This year, I've asked Allison to hang up some mistletoe that I can go under with Thomas. It may seem small and insignificant, but Thomas has always loved the mistletoe tradition and has been begging Allison to put some up around the house.

Before we reach the family room, I let Thomas know I plan to give him his gift in private. His eyebrows raise in shock, and he lets out a tiny "oh." I laugh as he clearly interprets my words in his own way, but don't correct him as we've already reached the family room.

After everyone has exchanged their gifts, I finally get to open Thomas'. Well, Allison gets to. At this moment, Thomas tells me that he actually wrote a poem that he will recite to me.

Thomas starts his poem with great emotion, "I don't want a lot for Christmas. There is just one thing I need. I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree. I just want you for my own, more than you can ever know. Make my wish come true; all I want for Christmas is you."

My smile falters as I recognize his poem from somewhere else. This isn't the first time this has happened, and I know that Thomas will be devastated when he finds out that he has given me a plagiarized piece.

Luckily, I don't need to be the one to break it to him, as Allison has already started. "Thomas, that's 'All I Want for Christmas is You,' by Mariah Carrey..." Mike starts laughing but quickly stops when Allison glares at him. He can't see me, but I am also glaring at him. Thomas will already be upset; there is no need to make it worse.

Thomas is quick to break down. "Oh no! I have done it again. Please send my most sincere apologies to Mrs. Carrey. I did not mean to steal her beautiful work. My dear, I am so so sorry. I did not intentionally give you stolen work, I swear!" he sobs.

"Oh, Thomas, dear, it is okay! You did not mean to. I promise that I don't see you any differently now. You are still a great poet. It happens to the best." I pull him into my arms, shushing him and rubbing his back. "Here, why don't we go get your gift," I whisper.

I stand and dust my clothes off, even though I know nothing is on them. I hold out my hand as an offer to help Thomas up. He gladly takes in, and I pull him up. Now standing, I start to lead him to the mistletoe. I asked Allison to place the mistletoe at an arbor near the lake. Thomas and I love to sit and watch the waves together, so I thought it would be the perfect place to give him his gift.

When we finally reach the arbor, I lead him directly under it. I smile at him as I take both of his hands in mine. His eyebrows scrunch in confusion, and I only look up, prompting him to do the same. Noticing the mistletoe, he looks down at me with a huge smile.

I nod at him, encouraging him to follow the tradition. Quickly, he lets go of one of my hands, instead cupping my cheek with it. His lips crash onto mine. He passionately kisses me like he has been dying to.

He breaks from the kiss after a minute but still holds my face. "Thank you. You know that I have been begging Allison to put some up. And I truly am sorry about the poem. I shall write you another poem-original this time- in order to correctly express my love for you,” he promises with a tight lipped smile.

“It's okay, my love. It's the thought that counts. I would love anything you give me, especially if it is another kiss," I reassure him. His smile widens, but I don't get to look at it for long as he quickly pulls me back into a passionate kiss.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 3/19/2024

boy hope i never run out of zelda games to play or my mental health is going to Tank. there are very vague endgame stuff spoilers (not where zelda is, but some of the time fuckery) but i am going to spoil a bit of the rito sage quest. nothing is rot-13'ed. i feel like that's a fair compromise since this game has been out for about a year? please let me know YOUR opinions on recent game spoilers

listening

Thanks A Lot But No Thanks from the 1955 musical It's Always Fair Weather, sung by Dolores Grey. this was Dolores Grey propaganda in the @hotvintagepoll. i love a sugar baby song and this is sort of an. anti-sugar-baby song? a satitrical sugar baby song? she thanks suitors for increasingly improbable gifts (the state of Maine, et al) before killing them??

the PIPES on this woman!!! the comedic timing!!! she pulls out a gun and shoots suitors dead while thanking them for an autographed picture of john wayne!!! she pulls a big lever and they all fall under the stage!!! ive been having kind of a Time in the depths of unemployment and this made me genuinely laugh (not one short sharp bark of laughter, full on cackling).

thanks for the darling uranium mine indeed

reading

the moonstone by wilkie collins (and philip). this has been my falling asleep reading book. this is decidedly not a cozy mystery but the stakes are not like. so high i have to keep reading through the night to find out what happens. i'm having a good time with it, currently about halfway and still very irritated with rachel, the main character right now. i have not revised my "spoiled brat" opinion and i look forward to seeing if i ever revise it.

-

watching

The Three Musketeers (2011, dir. Paul W.S. Anderson). thank you mackintosh (this is a discard from my hometown library and no one needs to know where that is thanks). it's pretty widely available on free platforms rn which is how you know it's good. it's not Good is the thing but it is extremely fun. it is straight up the three musketeers but with an airship. milla jovovich jumps off an airship into the channel. milla jovovich does some assassins creed shit. luke evans does some assassins creed shit. there is an airship fight and an airship chase. it is So cheesy and unfortunately never got another sequel. it also inexplicably has some of the finest cinematic swordfighting since the golden age of hollywood.

this was a really successful impromptu movie night pick for a more widely varied gang than usual, including some teens. my bestie also enjoyed it, which i am So pleased by bc she has extremely exacting movie taste. this cast is so stacked for no good reason: orlando bloom, luke evans, christoph waltz, mads mikkelsen, matthew macfayden...

-

playing

i have a post in my head about breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom and their dialogue with each other about loss and grief, but i think that's going to have to wait until i have a little bit more brainpower. perhaps i can talk a little bit about how they make me feel about loss and grief, and how i was upset for zelda and her hundred-year siege in the last one but i am so so so desperately sad for zelda in tears of the kingdom.

i played through breath of the wild with a constant background sense of loss and grief. this is only partially due to the real-life severe depression and joblessness. i think this is a personal brain thing and not a game thing, but i did feel guilty when fucking around in breath of the wild and not actively doing main quests to save zelda. like i would look at the castle off in the distance and feel kind of bad. the champions (and zelda!) telling link as soon as physically possible that it wasn't his fault made me cry in real life every time. i get it's like a month max of in-universe time between games, but it still feels like he has once again missed SO much. i think this is sort of a larger symptom of depression in that i look at [REDACTED] in tears of the kingdom and get a bit hopeless about [REDACTED] and it's like. well i might as well go pick golden apples and not do main quests. time is meaningless.

i am really glad they kept the shrine of resurrection on the plateau in tears of the kingdom. if that hadn't been there i the player would have felt very unmoored. i cannot begin to think how unreal and depersonalized it would have made link feel.

enough of that! the hero's path function is so funny. there are such huge swathes of the map i looked at and said No Thanks! Not Yet!

my depths map is even funnier. eight lightroots so far. no thank you! too scary still! i thought until VERY RECENTLY that all the caves and wells led to the depths and was avoiding them. mistake! cool shit in caves and wells! some horrible boys as well but they are vastly outnumbered by the cool shit.

the rito sage quest fucked SO severely. i had so much fucking fun with that boss fight even though it took me a real life two hours to get up to the arena with the puzzles to unlock the boss fight. i also surprised myself and did not have to look up how to beat any of the puzzles or the boss! just entered a state of flow and looked up and it was three hours later! i know a lot of people are very grumpy about how this was not a totally new game with a totally new map, but i have nothing but praise for the mechanics in this completely new section. knocked my socks off. made me think but wasn't too frustrating. made me use all my powers and all my weapon types. it was simply a great deal of almost frictionless fun! some over the top sick as shit stuff that is the whole point of video games as a medium imo

unlocked all the geoglyphs and i am Upset. i am UPSET.

and now for some horse talk (TM): i kept the very first horse i caught out of nostalgia even though these stats are not very good. i think the naming scheme for this game will be H (the last game was C). the breath of the wild giant ganon horse is so funny. you can't do shit with this horse. you can't change the mane. you can't change the tack. you can't increase his stats. he's just There. Large.

tangential horse talk: why is this lynel in the wetlands. his feathering and fetlocks are going to rot off. he is going to founder

some places ASCEND works where i didn't expect it to: tree. water you can stand in.

i stumbled across the last power completely accidentally while trying to deliver some eyes to a mysterious god and this was so fucking funny. i DID throw this guy down a big pit in the last game and he never came back. i forgot about that.

also people were fucking gaga for rauru but why didn't i see people talking about either of these two last summer on this, the -girl affix site and the scruffy shredded boy site

some other bits and bobs:

i was so annoyed patricia was part of the compendium in the last game i fucking got her this time ok

very hashtag relatable languages moment

unrelated to either of those things, i have done the gerudo sage quest except for the boss battle and i missed two huge swathes of hashtag tunnel gameplay (going to find riju through the tunnels. simply went overland) and getting to the central temple chamber (simply used ascend). whoops

there's a little tower concept art piece in purah's room in the ancient lab! that's a fun little touch i really love, it really helps differentiate the games and show changes in the overworld between games in a very cheap and east way for the devs

bc i play these games like dressup simulators, i also want to note that misko's tents are also really fun, they really feel like they're from a much earlier era and i'm stumbling across an untouched archaeological site

-

making

garden update: growing along okay, it has been so so so wet lately and i should have bitten the bullet and bought the big expensive bag of perlite, the drainage is not terrific. i should elevate all the planters and that would help a bit too. tomatoes are bit leggy, i moved them out of the partial shade on the end of the balcony and in front of the window. i am a bit concerned about them getting scorched, but again it's been so wet lately they need all the help they can get. i feel like they're established enough to be pruned a bit to make them bushier but i am Afraid. there are worse things in life than leggy tomatoes

the pic on the left below: these bush beans are looking a bit strange as well. the four shorter ones came up, promptly withered their cotyledons, and i thought they died until they popped out their first true leaves. the larger ones i think may have some kind of mosaic virus but it's a little early to tell. these are bins that haven't been used outside (they stored clothes in for the move) and new dirt from home depot. either the dirt or the seed stock itself may have been infected? very strange. the cucumbers in the bin in the back (hidden by the beans) are also taking forever to get going. at least the sweet peas are doing fine. the spinach i planted in that back bin withered where the stems met the soil and died. i think it was simply to early and too damp for them.

anyway on the right pic above: these normie peas and normie climbing beans seem to be doing fine. that's dill in the gray pot and basil in the bucket, they also seem to be doing fine. just sort of a perplexing corner on the other side of the balcony.

[itsmalachitenow]

MORE CHUCK HEADCANONS!

You guys seemed to really like my last post, so I'm sharing the other headcanons I've gathered for my personal take on Chuck since then. Get ready for angst!

Chuck did, in fact, hit Gus with the Ghost Train. It was an accident, and to this day he's incredibly broken up about it. Gus, on the other hand, isn't nearly as upset about being dead. He will, however, use his death to guilt Chuck into doing things for him because he knows just how awful Chuck feels about it. Any time Gus wants a new game system or toy, if Chuck isn't too keen on getting it for him, Gus will just bring up that Chuck ran him over and now he's stuck here, and Chuck will look utterly miserable as he climbs into his wheelchair to leave the Ghost Station.

Chuck is very talented at many different types of instruments, including but not limited to: piano, trumpet, saxophone, violin, harp, french horn, clarinet, cello, and oboe.

He can also sing very well. He is a baritone.

Chuck's true full name is Carlo Toscanini. He prefers the Chuck nickname, though, because it sounds like a train noise. He likes train noises!

Because he's been alone for so long, Chuck is incredibly self conscious about needing any kind of help because he's disabled. Especially when he's in his chair. The idea of being helped and not having to do it all himself is completely foreign to him, and he absolutely abhors the idea of needing to rely on someone else to help him do what he sees as 'basic things'. He would rather struggle by himself than swallow his pride and ask a loved one to get involved.

Related: If you touch this man's wheelchair without asking him first, he is going to run you over with it.

Chuck will never finish his 'magnum opus'. He is a perfectionist, and hasn't had what he considers a 'good' piece in decades because he's constantly going back and changing them, never satisfied with the results. Even if he does finish a musical composition or opera, he will always find some fault with them afterwards and not want to dwell on them. Being alone for so long with no real audience for his works other than Gus (who doesn't really understand or care as much because he's a kid) means he's his only critic, and he will always be his worst critic.

Chuck makes his own coffee and is a total snob about drinking anyone else's. It tastes like diesel, but it'll keep you awake for three days straight.

This man does not have a consistent schedule for anything other than 'work'. Food, sleep, self care, all of it comes second to his job and to his music.

He has chronic insomnia, and horrible nightmares whenever he does drift off to sleep, so Chuck prefers to just keep going for as many days as possible until his body physically cannot stay awake anymore.

Because he's lived so long, Chuck can barely remember any of his early life, and that terrifies him. He remembers the name of his hometown, he remembers he had a father who was a conductor, but everything else is a blur. He can't remember his parents' names, their faces, whether he had siblings or not...those memories are gone forever, and Chuck will never get them back.

His biggest regret is not saying goodbye to his family the night he left to join the Train.

Chuck is also terrified of going back to his hometown, because he knows it will be entirely different from what little he remembers. If he never returns, he can always pretend it's still the way he was when he left it, and ignore the gravity of his choice to join the Ghost Train.

Because he's scared he'll forget other things, Chuck is a compulsive journaler. He writes down the day's events, no matter how trivial, and gives a massive amount of detail about every person he interacts with. He only started doing this about a hundred years ago, once he realized he couldn't remember his family anymore.

Chuck has a small apartment in the Ghost Station. It's small and cramped, but it's a place for him to stay when he's not working, and also for any lovers or loved ones to stay if they're 'living' with him. He has a room entirely dedicated to all of his journals, though the manner of sorting them is known only to Chuck.

[zoyazenik]

emily’s endless list of ocs ✨ ↳ ana martinez, eat your young 🫀 ↳ ( in•sp )

Ana Martinez does not survive in the end. 

She does not live to see her mother again, to play another game of soccer, or win another debate competition. She does not grow old, she doesn’t get married, she doesn’t see her older brother find peace. All she does is wither and rot, as all things do. 

But Ana Martinez is not all dead, not fully. She lives on in the memories of the survivors, of those that got to see the plane that saved them. She haunts them, they see her in their periphery, in the gentle laugh of a girl, the breeze in autumn, the biting chill of a winter’s night. Because Ana Martinez is dead, but she is the reason they all survived.

Seventeen, almost eighteen, Ana was almost out of New Jersey, and she was going to go out with a Bang! She’d been the team’s Left-Winger since she’d graduated from JV when she was freshly fifteen, and despite being the Coach’s daughter, nobody could deny her being one of the strongest players on the team. She was a shoo-in for a full-ride scholarship to the University of North Carolina, she was going to be a star player and get a business degree while doing it. But first they had to win at Nationals.

Ana liked to believe that what happened next was the consequence of three things.

1. Taissa Turner breaking Ally’s leg, tearing it apart, right down to the bone.

Ana knew it was a bad idea, she’d argued against it, when Tai had proposed the idea to the small group of players. She’d stood strong beside her fellow Winger, Natalie Scatorccio, pleaded for them to see sense. But Tai was headstrong, and she wanted to win, and that wasn’t going to happen if Ally was on the field with them.

Ana figured she didn’t fight enough.

2. The Yellowjackets being prideful, arrogant, and sometimes, downright mean.

It wasn’t their fault, any of them. Ana and the rest of the team, they were just kids - teenage girls, most of which hadn’t even hit eighteen yet. Teenage girls are mean, they tear at your throat with words of poison, and teeth filed to sharp points – they pick you apart piece by piece, they consume your very being until they spit you back up, a perfect mold of themselves.

Each of the Yellowjackets had a vice, something that made them imperfect, something that made them wrong. 

Ana wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she liked girls or the fact that she liked to throw eggs at the houses of kids who pissed her off that made her wrong. 

She just knew that she was.

3. Ana Martinez telling her father she hated him.

Sure, Mr. Martinez wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t a particularly good father, he was harsh and stern and cared all too much about soccer than he did about his children, but he was still her father. He worked harder than anyone she’d ever known, he made sure that she had whatever she needed, and when she was hurt – emotionally, physically, whatever it may be – he made sure to pat her on the head and slip a plate of sopapillas under her bedroom door.

And the truth was that Ana loved her father, more than anything else in the world – even if he hadn’t told her he loved her in two years, even if he frowned more than he smiled. But he had upset her, in the way that only he could. Instead of congratulating her for their big win, for saying how excited he was for them to go to nationals, for telling her he was proud of her, he had critiqued her. 

Ana had never been good at receiving critique from her father, but this time, when she’d been coming down from such a high, she simply couldn’t handle it, which is why she’d yelled.

So, this was why Ana believed they’d crashed, why they had to do what they had to do, endure what they endured. Ana believed that the reason she died was because no matter how hard she worked to help everyone, to make sure the team stayed together and stayed alive, it didn’t matter, because at her core, Ana Martinez was a girl, and she was twisted, wrong. 

This is why she didn’t make it.

taglist 🦋: @dragonsbone, @kiara-carrera, @fleetwoodmcs, @dio-nysvs @purpleyearning, @villanele, @daisyjohvson, @arrthurpendragon, @aaudace, @julianblackthcrns, @richitozier, @megdonnellys, @anotherunreadblog, @prosemoireia, @luucypevensie, @chlobenet, @eddysocs, @phoebestarks, @stareyedplanet, @waterloou, @raith-way, @jvstjewels, @eddiemunscns, @impales, @darkwolf76, @fakedatings, @daughter-of-melpomene

[want to be added or removed?]

[loraliewritesthings]

Nameless Danny au: Brotherhood part 1

Concept: Danny is both Damians twin and ghost king. Part 3 of the whole nameless danny series. The coronation threw Danny eyes now.

Danny stood tall. He knew he shouldn't hold a grudge, shouldn't be so upset. He needed to be gracious.

He didn't want to assume the worst of the observers but the evidence was looking him dead in the face. He tried to draw his attention to the crowd. To the future not the past.

As ghost king his family was the dead. Sure all people died eventually, would be his family eventually... but neither the al ghuls nor the Wayne's were his family today... well besides Martha and Thomas Wayne. He would have to talk to them, once the party was over. About their son and grandson.

Perhaps he would trade Bruce Wayne the chance to say goodbye in return for leaving him be. He really didn't want to give the title king father to a man he didn't know. Even if he was batman.

Since queen mother was Jazz's title. There was no way he was giving it to Maddie after all. To make Bruce king father would be awkward. As of Talia... honestly he tried not to care what she would think. Even as a tinge of frustration banged in his chest.

Ras may have killed him but Talia... she had ABANDONED him. His birth mother had abandoned him.

No Talia would have no power here. No matter how much she raged or how cruelly convincing she acted. Being gracious didn't mean being a pushover.

He looked forward. This was his day, not his parents.

Jazz squeezed his hand and then let him go.

He began to speak the promise he had memorized months ago. When he had finished preparing to be king. It had been two years of constant study. Constant work to be the best king he could be.

He had been scared when he first started memorizing his oath. That he would mess up even before he was crowned. Now he was much more sure of himself. (He wouldn't give Talia the satisfaction of seeing him fail)

In the end he spoke his oaths flawlessy

English, Latin, Ghost Speak, all calmly and clearly.

The crown was held above his head. He had worn it a couple times before. All in preparation. Just as he had been made to get used to the ring of rage.

Even now it glinted on his finger.

The first thing clockwork did was get him use to being kind and good while wearing it.

The infinite realms would not tolerate another Pariah Dark.

At first Danny had been furious, Genuinely frightening to be around. But he didn't want to be like them. Not like Talia or ras or... Damian.

Slowly he learned to cool his temper and hold his tongue. Biting it physically at first with one of his top fangs.

His fangs that will soon be met with another pair.

Most ghost kings ended up with two or three pairs.

The crown was dusted carefully. Every time danny wore it before it had hurt. It was like his death if not worse.

The pain would be sharp, piercing and violent. And then it would fade. With a little luck this would be the last time he felt such pain. The crown was rarely if not never removed from its king.

Danny took a deep breath as the crown was put on his head.

Then he began to scream. It was no worse then the last few times, but pain was still pain.

Tears filled his green eyes and he struggled to hold himself in his ghostly form.

Clockwork had insisted Danny stay halfa as king. He said it would be useful. It wasn't as if his new citizen minded much.

He began to scream. It felt like he was burning freezing and being electrocuted all at once.

He could feel the power began to rush threw him. Felt his sister gently crying beside him. Felt the eyes of his people on him

And then just as quickly as it began to hurt, the pain faded.

Slowly he opened his eyes, and looked humbly at the floor.

The crown began to float above his head and Danny carefully rose off his knee. Even in the remaining pain he understood he needed to be dignified. Being king wasn't a game.

Danny dusted himself off, noting his hands were slightly sweaty and straightened his back.

Looking up from the palace floor he snapped his fingers and the crown ignited putting off gentle warmth and green light.

Slowly he surveyed the crown looking for any form of disapproval from his subjects.

He was surprised to find none.

As he finally took the thrown his subjects let out a almost defining cry

"All hail king danny"

He smiled. Slightly exhausted, until he noticed a pair of eyes in the crowd, sharp and unreadable and almost as green as his.

He suppressed a frown.

He had really tried to not acknowledge his twin, but he was looking right at him with a raised eyebrow.

Damian had always been hard for him to read, but danny could tell he was frustrated.

"Long may he rule!"

Tags: @bluerosefox @fisticuffsatapplebees @skulld3mort-1fan @samgirl98 @itshype @thegatorsgoose @ladythugs @iamheretoconsumeandsharethatisit @mlpizza @thatrandomsarahchick @stargirl1331 @betinaplayingwriter

[shockersalvage]

DR3 Rewrite: Deadly Life Part 1

Heeeey, remember this little project? Where I was rewriting DR3 and even made a post concerning the first part - here - if you remember? It started my year, and I was working on it for a good deal.

That said, between general life busynes and motivation issues, it's been kind of slow. That said, am still working on it and originally wanted to only post until it was 100% done. Buuuut, at my pace, felt even doing that was kind mental slog. So instead, I'll be breaking it down into several eps per post for people to enjoy and have something out there until the gap between this and the next part.

So without further ado, I hope reading both will be enjoyable!!

13

The cast is in shock: Chisa Yukizome was dead and they were clearly under threat from the Monokast. With Monokuma at the front of the screen, he begins to explain the whole ordeal - the third killing game under the Monokuma Hunter rules.

Monokuma Hunter is as follows under two phases: Hunter Phase and Trial Phase. Under Hunter Phase, as it stands, the cast is on the F1 of the building and have to make their way up to the trial grounds of F6. However, each floor above is hosted by a member of the MonoKast who has a particular ‘Hell’ that the cast must endure, lest it cost them their lives. 

Each floor has a Boss that governs it as well, and they are in charge of ensuring that ‘Hell’ is carried out. If the cast manages to defeat the Boss then the conditions of the Floor are nullified. In addition, they could also get a major lead that could help them for the Trial Phase. 

In the Trial Phase, similarly to a class trial, the cast will be discussing who is the guilty party - though instead of discussing who killed who, its ‘who are the Traitors’ that have set up this killing game? There are three Traitors that they are to find and vote off. If they vote all three off, the game is over and the survivors can leave the building. If even one Traitor is not voted for after the final trial, the non-Traitor survivors will be executed. The Trial Phase happens once all floors have been conquered.

With that in mind, for the time being F1 has also been made the group’s de facto living quarters with food, a nurse’s office and bedding that’ll suit their needs for the time being and give them rest in-between their endeavors. 

With that, the explanation ends, and the room descends into chaos. Yelling is going on and tension is high given the circumstances. What should they even do? It’s Munakata who, in spite of his loss, gets everyone back on track. As it stands, standing around isn’t going to do anything. If they want answers, than the best course is to investigate their surroundings first…and if all else fails to make headway, they move up to the next floor.

Nobody really likes it, but there isn’t much anyone can really do. Juzo is assigned to keep watch over Makoto given how high suspicion is on him. As for Kyoko, she’s allowed to investigate Chisa and where she died, though under watch by Munakata himself. Seiko is also there to do an autopsy, albeit as best as she could. Everyone else is to spread out throughout the first floor to search or gain their bearings.

Hina, alongside Koichi and a very upset Ryota, go to Kyoko to get info on Chisa’s death. It was a stab through the heart from an odd-looking knife that did her in. Presumably, the culprit stabbed with it before hoisting her on top of the chandelier before rigging it to fall. Koichi asks if it was possible any of them could have done it, Kyoko believes that, while possible, its too early to tell since, given how long the group was out, the culprit would have hm more than enough time to kill Chisa and prepare their event up, and get back in position before anyone would even wake up.

When asking Seiko about the time of death, while she admits she is not a true coroner, she can at least confirm that it has been a good deal of hours since Chisa had died. There was no hope of saving her long before they woke up. Upon saying that, she notices Munakata and immediately begins to apologize, though he tells her it’s alright. Makoto, knowing how it feels to lose a girl you love, tries to empathize with Munakata, but the Vice Chairman tells him to save it. 

The others come back to share their findings. As it stands, the exits are locked up tight. No way in or out. There were enough rooms for everyone and food to last for a while, but it remained pretty clear this is not a permanent stay. They needed to make moves and fast. So, with that in mind - Munakata gives the orders. They were heading to F2. Though as they make their way to the elevators, they find that there are three different elevators they had to take. 

Monokuma appears on the monitors again. He adds that, before the elevators could rise, all participants needs to spread themselves amongst the elavators. At max 5, at minimum (for one elevator in this case) 4. At this, the groups are created under Munakata’s direction/personality clashes:

Group 1 - Munakata, Juzo, Makoto, Gozu, Hina (Gozu was worried about Makoto, and so Tengan allowed him to watch over him to ensure the first two don’t do anything foul. Hina joined G1 to help out Makoto)

Group2 2 - Kyoko, Tengan, Koichi, Ryota, Seiko (Tengan volunteered to lead this next part, with Ryota joining under him. Kyoko followed suit with G1 filled and with a degree of suspicion on her face. Koichi followed Kyoko and Seiko couldn’t join G3 or G1 so she had to join G2)

Group 3 - Ruruka, Izayoi, Bandai, and Miaya (Ruruka refused for Seiko or any ‘traitors’ to join her elevator, so her BF and the two neutrals won by default)

With these settled, the groups finally make their way to F2. Inside each elevator is a monitor that explains the rundown of the Floor. For F2, the Host of the Floor is Monokan and her Floor Boss is Pestilence: The Ex-Ultimate Exteriminator - Jun Ueda. The stipulations of the Floor is as follows. Each elevator has enough gas masks that can filter out a particular poisonous gas for one hour. During that hour, the players must traverse through F2 and defeat the Floor Boss. How they defeat a FB is entirely up to the players (kill them, knock them out, capture them, make them give up - it’s all up to the cast). Once that happens, the gas will stop automatically, along with treatment for the poison in the room to the trial grounds. A Clue for one of the Traitors identity will be handed out following an FB’s defeat.

With that firmly established, the cast (after getting their masks) brace themselves to face Jun..with both Juzo and Munakata looking even more irritated at the thought. Especially, Munakata. A flashback shows Jun sitting in a chair, drinking some tea, and even looking genuinely friendly towards the Class 74 trio.

…Which is contrasted with Jun in the present, sitting in an armchair as gas flows throughout the room - gas mask on in preparation for the fight to come.

14

The scene opens with Hagakure running for his life and for good reason. The Ultimate Elite Taskforce is still after him and wants his ass dead. It’s basically the start of Hagakure’s bizarre, unfortunate, adventure trying to get to safety, all while trying his damnedest to get in contact with anyone from inside or even outside, like Byakuya…

Speaking of which, everyone’s favorite heir is knocking back some tea as he gets a report on the damages throughout the divisions. For Division 14, they’ve since managed to subdue the rebels and have suffered minimum casualties. Their current objective is reaching out to the other Division and trying their damndest to support them as best as they can. We get a flashback to Byakuya looking over the contents of the files from last season. How they showed there was going to be a nationwide rebellion against the Branches, and how Byakuya had barely managed to organize his own security force for Division 14 prior to things going crazy. Pennyworth and his secretary remark on fortunate it was that they were able to get the drive to Byakuya in time. He agrees though they can’t rest now: they need to get in touch with, and possibly, rescue the Directors as soon as possible. Through the emails, Byakuya knows the location of the secret trial and is trying to arrange ships and helicopters as quickly as possible. But, given how much disarray everyone was in, it’ll be awhile.

But, hopefully, the others can hold out until then.

Speaking of the others, they’re at the Pestilence Floor - a place filled with dense gas that they have to make their way through and traps. Such as spears through the floors and Monokuma units that lunge out. Thankfully, for the groups, they’re able to gradually make their way throughout the maze like floor due to their own experience. Though Kyoko can't help but notice that, for her group, they aren't really running into most obstacles as expected…

During this time, Makoto begins to ask if anyone knows anything about the Floor Boss - Jun Ueda. Begrudgingly, Munakata informs Makoto that Jun was a former member of class 74’s student council. Specifically, he was their Treasurer - being a snarky, teasing, logistics man who only forked up the cash for any school project only when all bases were covered. Something that is shown in a flashback to the 74 trio and their interaction with their former friend. Though, their happy days could not remain forever. He later joined Future Foundation - but was imprisoned due to the one act that earned him his place among the Four Blights. He gassed a warehouse filled with those who were ill, injured, disabled in some manner or were under watch due to having some past criminal conviction - killing them all while they slept. The very next day, when it was discovered, he turned himself and remained in max prison up until recently.

Makoto and Hina are horrified, while their other teammates are tense. This is why Munakata wants Jun defeated immediately. They can’t risk any of the Blights getting back out and enacting their horrors again. They have to end him here. But as they enter another room, Hina asks if both Juzo and Munakata are prepared to fight against someone that used to be their friend. Something that a voice mentions, is way too late to consider.

It’s Jun, gas mask on his face, and gun in hand. Munakata orders Gozu to watch Makoto and Hina while he and Juzo try to pincer Jun. However, it’s a tense fight as Jun is very light on his feet, and has some units to help hold off both. While he fights, he’s taunting Munakata - criticizing how it was inability to take decisive, proper, headway into this matter that led to the Directors being attacked like this now. What lead to that incident in the past! He should be ashamed of himself for being so hesitant!! It’s what leads Munakata being grazed by a shot and Juzo getting knocked about in his anger to get to Jun.

However, Makoto has had enough and rebuked such claims. While he doesn’t know Munakata personally, and while they definitely disagree on certain things, even Makoto can see he was at least trying to help as much people as he could in these awful times! Jun shoots back, both metaphorically and literally, that trying to help everyone is a fool’s errand. During the time of the incident, Future Foundation was struggling to gain supplies to help those under their care - it was a massive effort to supply a squad, let alone refugees. If they helped everyone under their case, they would have been left completely depleted and wiped out by Ultimate Despair. That’s why Jun did what he ‘had’ to do it. He wiped out those who couldn’t help FF to make the organization live for another day. It was awful, but necessary in his eyes. Even the five here can understand the need to dirty your hands for the greater good, right? Hina is the one to speak up on this.

She knows how it feels, to think you have to resort to extremes just because you think its right (referencing her attempt in DR1 chapter 4 in trying to kill everyone after bein tricked by Monokuma). But, she insists that being tunnel visioned by thinking you’re justified can lead you to being blinded on the truth. In this case? He had no real way of knowing if slaughtering those refugees really was the ‘saving move’ he keeps claiming it is. True, FF was struggling back then, but he has no real evidence that helping out the refugees would cost the FF everything. If anything, by killing off so many with potential who could have helped, didn’t he just send the organization back ? Jun has to know this, unless…

Is he is arguing his case so hard, because realizing the other side is that soul crushing?

Snapping, an angry Jun is about to shoot her when he realizes his mistake. Hina distracted him enough to allow Munakata to get in close - knocking away Jun’s gun with a slash. Thus, giving Juzo a free opportunity to punch Jun in the mask. Sending him flying into the wall, unconscious. His gun was also knocked away from him, but no one quite seems to notice. On his wrist, a bracelet glows red and the gas stops. The Floor Boss has been defeated.

From Jun’s defeat, a letter floats down from the ceiling, into Makoto’s hands that he reads for the group:

“Even a dethroned monarch can be crowned again…”

Huh? The crew is unusure to what this means and by now the other groups have arrived. Jun also begins to stir, chuckling at their confusion. Munakata walls up to him, raises his katana and holds his blade to Jun’s throat. What is the meaning of this? Who recruited him for this? Who does this hint refer to. Jun opens his mouth, but by now Monokima units have flooded the room and snatched Jun.  

It's been announced that since Jun lost there would be a penalty for him. As Munakata and Juzo fight to get to him, begging him to speak, and to stay with them - all Jun could say is this:

“Eh, only thing I can really say is that the one who got me on board was a real nag. Sorry, but my hands are tied.” But right as they take him out of the room he does say this to Munakata. 

“Maybe…I was the one that couldn't remain decisive that day."

With that he was gone. But for what? Well…

“Boss of the Pestilence Floor, Ex-Ultimate Exterminator: Jun Ueda has lost his fight. Time to face the penalty!!! Let’s give it everything we’ve got: It’s punishment time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Execution: Suffocation of the White Rider

Jun wakes up to find himself trapped in an enclosed space with multiple other boxes beside him. The boxes all open to pour vermin and other dangerous animals. In addition, gas begins to fill the room. Chuckling, Jun goes around the room, trying to fend off the beasts as he scrambles to find a jumpsuit, oxygen tank and gas mask to put on. He succeeds, but that’s also his downfall. I nthe suit itself are venomous creatures that attack Jun. The suit itself can not be removed and the cast are forced to watch as he stumbles around in the haze…and eventually collapses dead.

This horrifies a lot of the cast, but they are urged by Munakata and Tengan to return down towards the first floor. The first floor has been cleared, and given what they’ve gone through, a rest is deserved.

On the monitors, of the MonoKast, Monokowl has been removed.

END

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for getting back into gardening?

There’s a story to this I swear I swear.

So. My friend got introduced to the game Omori! I’ve been a fan since it was in development and have been slowly trying to convince them to play the game to have brainrot with me.

And, like many people, my friend grew to love the character Basil when they played it. He’s a shy, sweet boy who loves plants.

My friend has now entirely changed themselves and acts as if they are pretending to be Basil in real life. They bought new outfits that mimic the ones he wears, they’ve suddenly started growing plants, etc. it’s very strange.

This is totally fine may I add! Baffling, but it’s not hurting anyone and I am actually very happy for them if this is genuinely how they want to express themselves. What is not okay is how they’re… trying to stop me enjoying gardening..?

I love plants and after a longwinded medical issue, I’m feeling less shitty I’m back into it actively. I have a thriving aloe vera with babies, cacti, succulents, a fig tree, apple tree, pear tree, herbs, raspberry bush, blackberry bush, loganberry bush, tomatoes, potatoes, etc etc. you get the picture. I really love plants! And I decided since I’ve been feeling better, hey, why not plant some new stuff too? So I’ve got some sprouts of various plants growing.

As I enjoy plants and they also do, I figured it’s a good common thing to bond over! I thought since they were a beginner I could help them when they got stuck or needed advice. So I’ve been talking to them a lot about their plants, offering some stuff to them when I harvest it, like strawberries and raspberries and apples, etc. and also being a generally open person if they need advice.

I have discovered over the past month or three that it seems my friend can not keep a plant alive to save his own skin. It’s okay, he’s new to it, plants die, it’s life. But when I offer some help (eg: “take some of my flower food, it will really help you get more blossoms when the time comes,” “you need to prune this part, it’s dead and it will spread to the rest of the plant”) he acts like I’m speaking down to him or insulting him. And he keeps killing plants.

Eventually I actually got upset with the amount of plants he was killing. They are living things and deserve a fighting chance, just like any person or animal does. There is no reason not to treat a spider plant with the same care you would a tree. So I was like hey if you want I can help you set up a watering schedule / help you find out which plants need more shade or more sun and stuff so you can keep them alive longer and he just blew up at me. I’m talking like screaming that he knew what he was doing and it’s NORMAL for plants to die and i “didn’t even care about plants until [I] started so why are you copying?!” It threw me for a loop and actually made me cry because you know… I don’t like getting yelled at lmao. After I cried a little bit I told him that I wasn’t going to talk to him until he apologises for treating me like that because it was uncalled for and really hurtful, I was only trying to help him with his hobby so we could talk about plants together and maybe share some propagated sprouts or something when his plants were old enough. He complained about me online for about a week but no one really listened because it’s very common knowledge I’ve been gardening since I was literally about four years old. He’s since stopped complaining about it but still refuses to apologise.

I’m worried that I might have been an asshole by offering my advice and help? I never pushed it onto him or anything, just offered helpful tidbits and gave him some plant food once, but he might have taken it in a different way than how I meant it.

AITA?

~🌿

What are these acronyms?

[cantsomeoneelsedoit]

Ch 56: Because You Believe

Three chapters ago, Billy claimed not to have any tea.

However, this chapter is overflowing with 100% undiluted tea, including shocking and unimaginable teas that we didn't even know existed. WHERE DO HIS LIES END?!?!

Prepare yourselves, because this chapter is wild!

It starts with a redraw of the final scene of the previous chapter, except this time Juiz adds, "I thought you betrayed us." The fact that Billy isn't acting like the villain and fighting her to the death has upset Juiz's clear-cut sense of right and wrong. She's torn by the possibility that he's not fully committed to this divergent course.

In other words, she's saying that if he wants to be a villain, then he should act like one.

And then HOLY SHIT BILLY'S BEEN PLAYING THE LONG GAME! How villainous!

Never once?! Up until now, it seemed like Billy's rebellion might have been a rejection of Juiz's leadership or maybe he had a different idea of what the Union goal should be. It was plausible that he only decided to rebel and form Under due to some grievance.

BUT, NO, HE'S BEEN PLANNING THIS FROM THE START?! Incredible! Preposterous! Outrageous!

And yet, the flashbacks that follow aren't of him scheming and pouting over the years... He looks happy!

We see Juiz giving him his sunglasses, Nico giving him his spurs, and Billy laughing with his team. Was it all a lie?

"Simply the ammo that I need to defeat God."

Has Billy been collecting abilities all this time to add to his arsenal? Just how many has he copied? And why does he want to defeat God? If his reasoning is the same as Juiz's, then what's the point of rebelling?

Even saving Tatiana was just a ploy? How could he be so cruel to a little kid?!

He says that finding Andy and Fuuko granted him a full arsenal and allowed him to move forward with the rebellion. He keeps describing this in military terms like a general who's had everything planned out, but it's looking like he spent too much time collecting weapons and resources when he still lacked A LOT of information about the nature of the world.

Juiz has heard enough! She's gonna call his bluff and force him to fight for his beliefs. She still sees herself as his boss, and she wants to bring him back to the Union nest like a mother cat.

Juiz charges toward Billy. He's stated his beliefs--almost purposefully laying out his "vision of justice" for her, and she believes him. Knowing that, she believes that her ability will cause him to attack himself or Tella, giving her an opening to non-lethally behead him.

But unfortunately, Juiz has been tricked again. Alas.

Instead of harming himself or Tella, Billy SHOOTS OFF JUIZ'S ARM!

And everyone is stunned except Billy. He won't even look. This is horrible!

Shooting Juiz went against Billy's sense of justice, but how? I see two possibilities:

Billy's justice wanted to kill Juiz, but Unjustice caused him to only wound her.

Billy's justice didn't want to kill Juiz, but Unjustice caused him to shoot her anyway. He mitigated the damage by aiming at her arm instead of a more deadly target.

And Billy is still trying to kill her even after she used Unjustice, so it seems he really does want her dead (or at least wants her to believe that he wants her dead?)

He couldn't use Unjustice because she believed in him? He used it on Tatiana, and she definitely believed in him! Just what exactly is the condition for Billy's copy ability?

Juiz calls for UMA Move. I never realized Move could work that fast!

"Hello, dearies. If it's not too much trouble, might you find the time to staunch this trifling little inconvenience I'm experiencing? It's just a minor issue, no worries." Oh Juiz, always trying to take too much on herself...

She's still keeping secrets! Nico is rude, but he's not wrong. And how the hell is she gonna hide a missing arm?!

Billy's plan keeps moving forward after the interruption from Juiz. Just how far has he planned?

Billy is betting that Feng can defeat both Fuuko and Andy (plus the rest of the team on the Summer mission?) He needs Fuuko's ability if he's going to be able to defeat God, but it's still not clear what the conditions are for Billy's copying.

Juiz's sword and arm are left behind. Without her weapon, how can she fight Billy when his motives are still so unclear?!

Masterpost