#the placement of the name change is still confusion to me

[nightiingaled]

Warning Sign | Tae-mi & Cass

Blackwatch Years Tae-mi when a mission goes awry. Trigger warnings for mentions of blood, momentary gore & near-death. @quick-drawn

The desert is alive with the sound of gunfire.

“One left!”

Tae-mi Jin is in the process of placing her final clip into her gun, licking her lips and whispering a soft prayer. She has her back against a collapsed stone wall, long worn from time.

“You’re talking about targets, right?”

Across from her – on the other side of the crumbling entryway into the long-destroyed building – Jesse McCree aims and misses one of the remaining soldiers creeping closer and closer to their position.

“Not with that aim!”

“You’re one to talk!”

Sure enough, the moment Tae attempts to take a shot at one of the soldiers, they open fire in her direction, and she misses her shot as she takes cover once again. She grumbles something to herself, but she knows that of the two of them she is the weaker link here.

Gunfights have never been her thing. Hand-to-hand, close combat has always been where she excels, if her continued wins in the fighting rings had anything to say about it.

“You think if we ask nicely, they’ll line up easy to let us punch them out instead?”

She can hear him thinking across the space between them and it almost makes her laugh.

“Can you two take this a little seriously?” Commander Reyes’ voice cut through their radios with a crackle of faint static.

A tight-lipped smile stretches across Tae’s features despite everything. “Not to rush you, Commander, but how’s it coming?”

“We’re in the clear. Light them up!”

Tae gives Jesse a thumbs up, Jesse returning the gesture. Tae thumbs the detonator in her other hand, pressing it with more force than probably necessary. The ground rumbles around them as multiple bombs go off in a location less than a mile east. Tae can see the haze that has erupted in its place as she dives into her hideaway.

 There’s the sound of screaming and shouting of orders and suddenly the soldiers assaulting them are leaving hurriedly in two vehicles towards the direction of the compound in the distance.

“Can’t believe that worked.”

Tae laughs, having crawled out of the crevice in the wall and crossed to Jesse’s side of the entryway. She offers him a hand up which he accepts with a smile. “I owe that man a dri—”

Gunfire breaks out once again, shattering the moment. Tae throws herself back to the wall, dragging a startled Jesse with her. “Damnit,” she spits.

“What was that?” Reyes clips through.  

“They left someone behind. Can’t be many we got—Jesse!”

Jesse is semi-conscious, flopping over as his body struggles to hold itself upright.

“Flesh wound, sweetheart,” he murmurs, his eyes flickering open and then closed again.

Crimson red is seeping through holes in Jesse’s vest and Tae swallows thickly.

“Stay still.”

The building around them has gone quiet. Tae is sure they couldn’t have left more than three behind. They would send as many as possible to see to the supposed attack on the compound and the two agents had done their best to leave few to spare.

Tae slips her knives from their sheathes.

The first comes through the entryway – poor thing was practically bait. Tae takes him out at the knees, quite literally taking her knives and slicing away at the back of his legs. He lets out a wailing scream and collapses as the second comes around the right corner. Tae knocks the soldier’s aim down towards the ground with one arm, using the other to slice up under and into his jaw. She lets him keep the knife as she turns the other on the third soldier hurrying through the entryway to help. Again, and again and again she thrusts her knife into his chest until he’s blubbering blood all over her.

“Three,” she tells herself, “They left three.”

The fourth doesn’t exactly take her by surprise so much as uses a different approach than the others. He rushes through the doorway and subsequently towards Tae herself. Smaller than him and more practiced, she manages to dodge to the side. It isn’t enough. He launches himself at her and throws her to the ground. Tae doesn’t realize his hands on her throat until they suddenly aren’t she’s breathing fresh air again, ears ringing from the nearby gunshot.

She rolls the body off her, looking over at Jesse. The man is sheet white, but the grip on his gun is surprisingly steady.

“Thank you,” he says softly.

“What?”

“You say, ‘thank you’, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me sweetheart,” she grumbles as she picks herself off the ground and hurries back over to his side. It’s at this moment that she realizes Reyes is still trying to make contact. His voice had become a distant buzz, a distraction she had to ignore for the time being.

“Jin, I swear to God if you don’t answer—”

“Sorry, sir. The pickup crew is cleared out, but McCree is injured.”

“Stay put. We’ll evac you as soon as we make the rendezvous.”

“Sir, I don’t think we have that kind of time. You still have miles ahead of you – we have a shorter distance we can hit the rendezvous at the same time.”  

While she’s talking, Tae is tearing spare fabric from the soldiers’ uniforms and her pants, wrapping the bandages around Jesse’s stomach, and tying them tight.

“Jin, don’t tell me you’re thinking of—”

“This isn’t a viable rendezvous point, sir. You said so yourself. We just blew up the safest landing zone for miles. And it’s going to be too Hot to land. It’s not worth the risk.”

“Jin, I mean it – do not leave your position.”

“Sorry sir, I’m getting nothing but static. I’ll meet you at the rendezvous.”

And then the line goes silent as she turns off her comms. Tae-mi reaches down, pulling Jesse up by both arms with a grunt and leaning him over her shoulder.

“Come on, Jess – we got a long walk ahead of us.”  

& & &

Tae didn’t doubt her logic, but she realizes that she might have misgauged how quickly she would be able to move with Jesse.  For what it was worth, he tries to help as much as he can. When he’s awake. But the man’s consciousness comes and goes. Here and there she catches him muttering to himself and wonders what delirium he finds himself in. She remembers him saving her so many years ago and it feels like only yesterday. To think she finally gets to return the favor – she hopes it’s worth it.

It's sad that even after all this time, she’s barely let him in. Barely let anyone in. It’s just her and her sister. The two of them have grown together in Blackwatch, different in multiple ways but so similar in so many others. What would it be like to lose him?

Tae swallows. No, she tells herself. Stop thinking like he’s dying.

But he is. He is dying. He’s dripping crimson through the makeshift bandages. He bled through the bandages, even after she ripped more of her pants to add to it. He’s bleeding into the remainder of her shirt, just bleeding and she can’t stop it. He’s paler than he was at the start and that is saying something. His sweat is almost drowning her.

“Gonna be sick…”

“Not on my shoulder you’re not.”

But she hopes it bodes well that he’s saying anything at all. He doesn’t get sick. They keep moving on.

There comes a point – as much as she hates it – that she must stop again, simply to rest. If she doesn’t her shoulder will give out. The two of them are covered in blood. Jesse has soaked through every bandage she’s thrown at him and down his pants. Tae has sacrificed everything but her tank top and enough of her pants they’ve become shorts. There’s no point making herself naked at this point – it’s not going to help, she knows.  

“…Behind…”

She has Jesse leaned against a rock ledge and she leans closer to him. “What’s up?”

A tongue licks slowly over his chapped lips. “Leave me…. behind.”

“Over my dead body.”

She reaches out to grab his arm, but he catches her wrist and holds it. His grip isn’t tight – he didn’t have the strength, but she doubts it would be even if he did. “Don’t die here….with me.”

“Neither of us is going to die, Jess.”

A crack creeps into her voice and she notices her fingers are starting to shake. She needs to get moving again before she can’t anymore, but Jesse’s other hand is touching her hair.

“You’re really pretty with this haircut, you know?”

“Jess – stop talking nonsense okay, let’s get out of here. You’re going to be okay. You’re gonna –”

He cups her jaw and leans forward, and Tae sees what comes next. She doesn’t stop it. It’s not the right time – it’s NEVER going to be the right time for her, but this is next level of not right. But what if they never get another chance?

Their lips meet and it’s so soft and weak on his end, but there’s still a fire behind it that she returns. Tae wraps her now free hands in his hair and leans him forward into the kiss, tears tracking down her worried features.

And then it’s over, but it remains abuzz within her. She thumbs his hair away from his eyes and sighs.  “I hope you didn’t think that was going to convince me to leave you, Jess,” she murmured. “Come on.”

& & &

She turns her comms back on the moment she sees the form of the helicopter growing nearer in the distance. To her surprise, Reyes does not immediately proceed to curses upon hearing her voice back on the radio.

“How’s he doing,” she hears instead and smiles softly to herself.

“Holding out.”

“We see you. We’ll meet you halfway.”

The group of agents do indeed meet them halfway with a stretcher. Jesse’s weight is transferred from her shoulder to someone else and Tae almost loses her balance at the loss. The realization of her own exhaustion settles on her, and it takes everything she has to keep walking towards the helicopter.

“Jin!”

Tae turns to see Commander Reyes approaching her at a brisk march. She swallows.

“Never ever and I mean ever pull that shit with me again, do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir.”

She turns away and keeps walking towards the ship before he calls her name once again. “Tae-mi…”

The woman turns back, and the Commander has a half-smile on his face. “Good job.”

She smiles back at him. “Yes, sir.”  

They pile into the ship as the medic works around them to try and stabilize Jesse.

Tae-mi clutches his hand the entire time. Tae-mi doesn’t care who sees at this point and no one says anything.

[juicedbeetle]

when the note doesn't light up (fav moments 6/?)

[beautifulblooms]

my mind has been absolutely PLAGUED with neteyam and ao'nung fighting for male readers love while also having some enemies to lovers of their own?? and they both confess to reader at the same time idk you can edit this as you please obviously,, i just love them sm ☹️☹️

Dual Love - Neteyam x Ao’nung x Male! Metkayina! Reader

I had a blast with this request and wanted to say thank you for requesting, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

CIS Women and Female Aligned people, please DNI, this story and all of my others are for non-binary, masculine aligned and male readers!

As a Metkayina, I’m no stranger to the clan leader and his family. Especially his children, Tsireya and Ao’nung. I had always grown up playing with them, Ao’nung more than Tsireya as she was usually training to be the next Tsahik with her mother. As a close friend to the siblings, I was almost adopted by their parents, seen as somewhat of another son to them. Of course they’d never try to take me from my parents, but there always was a second home for me with them.

When the forest people came to us, it was a shock to us all, and while I wasn’t one of their children, Tonowari and Ronal assigned me to assist them with their adjustment to our lifestyle. The forest people had many children themselves, and being assigned to them, I learned their names rather quickly. Kiri was the most stand-off ish to me, preferring to connect to the elements or perhaps Eywa. Tuk was the only other girl, she was rather nice and full of life, regressing young energy.

Neteyam and Lo’ak were the only boys, as such, I was essentially given an extra special role of making sure that Ao’nung didn’t do anything stupid when teaching them. Sure he can be responsible, but he can also be crass and rude, especially when it comes to new people he could bully.

“C’mon, we’re gonna try to hold our breath again, remember what we taught you. Breath deep from here, and slowly release it when you’re underwater.” I rubbed my hand gently across Neteyam’s stomach, showing where he needed to try breathing from again. He was getting better at it, as was Lo’ak, but it seemed the older one was making more progress than his younger brother. Tsireya and Ao’nung were off to the side, showing them how to do it as well, also helping Kiri and Tuk get a hang of it.

“I think I got the hang of this.” Neteyam said while trying to keep his voice down for some reason. I looked into his eyes only to see him turn his head quickly. I was confused but paid it no mind, returning to help Lo’ak with his breathing placement. From behind me I could almost hear a hiss from Neteyam, still paying it no mind I guided the brothers to the water to try again for a longer time. Diving into the water gracefully I spun around to watch them attempt to dive with me. Cue their balled jumps into the water, and me silently giggling underwater at how childish they were.

“Let’s try again.” Tsireya spoke to the girls she and Ao’nung were instructing. Ao’nung gave me a look when he saw how close Neteyam was to me, Al thought given his attitude to all the newcomers, I expected it. He’s not a fan of big changes, and teaching many Omatikaya how to be Metkayina was something he definitely didn’t want. We all swam into a loose circle together, Tsireya, Ao’nung and I all counted down from 3 to have them all take deep breaths before sinking underwater. Once under I noticed that Tuk had breathed in poorly and wasn’t gonna last long, tapping her and pointing up to have her surface. She followed the direction and I continued to watch the other three forest people. Kiri quit next, almost out of boredom it seemed. As the three used to being underwater, the siblings and I had no problem watching the last two Sully children attempt to hold their breath.

“They’re lasting a lot longer than before, good job (y/n).” Tsireya signed to me as I nodded and thanked her while the two brothers looked at us confused.

“I forgot we still need to teach them sign, this is gonna be worse than taming a skimwing.” Ao’nung signed to us, making all three of us realize it was gonna be a hard task to teach them another language. Glancing over to the brothers right as Lo’ak quit and surfaced for air, leaving only Neteyam left. I made a note to compliment him once he could understand what I’m saying. Another few minutes go by before he starts to choke on the water, surfacing immediately. Following him, the three of us surfaced as well and made our way back to the shore.

“That was very good for all of you, Tuk I want to work with you more later to figure out breathing styles. Kiri….is not here anymore, where did she go? Anyways, Lo’ak and Neteyam, also very good job to you two, I’ll help you both out with holding the air for longer and releasing it slower.” The three Sully’s that were left nodded and gave noises of agreement or acceptance to my words.

“It’s been awhile since we started, we should take a break.” Tsireya butted in before I was about to start helping Tuk, but realized we had been working for a good bit of time by now.

“You’re right, I’ll be back in my Marui, let me know if we start training again.” I started to head back to the village and where I had settled myself amongst my people.

“(Y/n), I need to talk to you.” Ao’nung came walking into the Marui and sitting right in front of me.

“Okay, can I help you?” He took a very deep breath and a second to collect his thoughts.

“Why are you so nice to the forest people?” I was confused by his question.

“We’re teaching them, it’s not like I should be a rude teacher just because they’re different from us. Why do you ask?” Ao’nung was almost taken aback by my answer, I guess he wasn’t expecting such a genuine answer.

“I guess you’re right, but I don’t think you should be around Neteyam so much, he gives me a strange feeling.” I sighed at what he said, of course it was him being protective, he always had been like this about me.

“Ao’nung, I know you’re protective of me, but I promise you, he’s fine, and I can defend myself if I need to, no need to protect me.” His cheeks brightened at my words and he turned his head away from me so I couldn’t see it.

“If you say so, but I warned you.” He stood up and left my Marui, leaving me to go back to what I was doing before.

Over the next few weeks, the three of us had managed to teach all the Sully children how to hold their breath underwater, to dive properly and deeply, hunt and harvest, and even how to ride the Liu’s. Neteyam and Ao’nung bickering never ceased, there was always some way they but heads or it seemed like a silent hatred for each other. At some points it almost seemed as though they were interested in each other because of how they acted with one another. I never paid either mind when they fought like children, but I did grow rather fond of Neteyam in the time I’d taught him. I’ve always had a quiet liking to Ao’nung, something I’ve experienced since I was a young boy and played with him in the shallows. While I developed a crush of sorts on Neteyam, the one for Ao’nung only seemed to strengthen. I loved them both as much as the other, but for the sake of both friendships I kept my feelings to myself.

We had just finished training the Sully boys again with hunting on Lius when I retreated to my Marui for a late meal and sleep. Not even a few minutes into cutting up the fish I found earlier, I could hear the two of them bickering on one of the pathways near my home. Once again, I paid them no mind, until the sounds got louder and louder and suddenly they were standing in front of me.

“Why don’t you just leave and go back to the forest, you’re clearly better off there.” Ao’nung almost shouted at Neteyam, who quickly made a comeback.

“Maybe you should try to swing and run in the forest, I’m sure you’d suffer there a lot more than we have here.” Just before Ao’nung retorted I stood up and put a hand on both their mouths.

“What do you both want and why are you arguing in my Marui?” I was mildly pissed off at how they just openly did such a thing while everyone in the village could hear them. They simultaneously responded with a jumbled mix of excuses and the word confession was thrown around a few times. “Enough, both of you, Neteyam, you first.” He nodded and began speaking.

“I was headed here to confess something to you, and ran into him, he started the argument.” I gave Ao’nung a look and he glanced down at his feet to avoid my gaze.

“Ao’nung, your turn.” He nodded and was more quiet in his tone than he was earlier.

“I also was on my way to confess to you when I saw this scown and had to say something about what he was doing.” Before they could start bickering again I slapped a hand over their mouths.

“Boys, if you can’t be nice, you both have to leave, now, I’m gonna move my hand, and you tell me what you wanted to confess, both of you.” I got grunts of agreement and so I moved my hands.

“I like you and want you to be my mate.” They both said in almost perfect unison, shocked looks took over their expressions as they realized they were here for the same reason. I giggled in response, not entirely sure how to react.

“Well, I like both of you as well, and it may not be traditional, and it will be very difficult, we can all be each other's mates.” They seemed to be almost pleased with my response, not too sure about how to handle being mates with their enemy, but for me, they were more than willing to make it work. Now I just had to talk to their parents and tell them about everything.

[runabout-river]

Thoughts on JJK chapter 271 - the last chapter (spoilers)

I did a live reading of this chapter you can find here if you're interested how my panel per panel thoughts progressed while reading it 😄

This very last chapter we start where we left off in ch 270: with the mission where the woman can't see the face of her boyfriend correctly anymore.

The first year trio are hard at work thinking through their options on what to do and how to pull that curse user out of hiding. We get a new sort of funny faces from the idiot duo, for them at least, I think these faces appeared in the Kenjaku/Takaba fight as well

The trio enacts their plan now and they catch the perpetrator really fast. Nobara does some funny yet unnecessary property damage in the process and we first get a cool panel of her and Yuji together than another silly panel of them not able to see their faces properly.

The perpetrator btw is a no name never before seen character created just for this mission so the guys can have one last low stakes adventure together.

We get a Gojo flashback giving Yuji a talk, saying his students should become better than him and forget him too, at least one of them. It isn't out of character for Gojo to say that but the placement and the build up for it is somewhat unsatisfying.

Yuji shows how he internalized Gojo's last words by encouraging the criminal to be better.

We get a cool Megumi pose with Kon after he showed us why he was the brains in the group but unfortunately that's basically it for him. Even though he was possessed and tortured by Sukuna for a month there is nothing left of that on him except superficial scars.

When Sukuna took him over Megumi was turned into an object meant to suffer. Now it feels like he's still that: an object but this time meant to be happy in a forcefully conflict free way.

When the readers believed in the dream theory, elements like that was where our thoughts came from. This forceful happy ending for everyone, a genre shift from what JJK had been at this point 🤔

Now we get a surprise Mahito and Sukuna interaction in the space before souls move on. Their conversation is interesting as is the reference to Sukuna's past and what he chose for himself.

In a way it was always apparent that Sukuna was bullshitting the people around him when he talked about himself and what others should do and not. For me it was the speech he gave to Yuji after possessing Megumi about how Yuji should stifle his misery because he was born low.

That immediately stood in stark contrast to what he later said to Kashimo about being born unwanted and cursed because now he admitted that he was in Yuji's position once too and still he developed that insanely arrogant self image.

My problem here is that this interaction references things that were not implied before like what his two paths above were supposed to be. Every time I look at that I get new ideas on what it could've been he's talking about.

It's good to have room for interpretation on someone's backstory. But to this degree it's just confusing. I thought the woman on the left is his mother, others said it could be Kenjaku or Yorozu. Whoever that is, the meaning of what Sukuna says changes drastically here.

His relationship and history with Uraume is also insufficiently explored. This scene unfortunately does not have the emotional impact it could've had if Gege had planted the correct seeds previously.

Sukuna walking away from the curse that represents human hatred however is meaningful. That part was halfway build up during the Yorozu fight when Sukuna said he would be willing to accept defeat.

We get the end of the manga the way it started: with Sukuna's last finger back in a box in a small shrine. It's poetic but the path towards it, these last chapters and the last arcs...

...it felt underwhelming, not gonna lie. Towards this ending were those unneeded scenes with the NSS and even the majority of this chapter was unnecessary and wasted time. What could've been a better last chapter than this while still hitting all the same beats would've been one solely from Sukuna's point of view.

Sukuna from before his birth, his infancy, his childhood. Showing us the path he talks about here. Giving us a glimpse on what the Calamity was, his relationship with Uraume, showing us why he accepted Kenjaku's offer. Then the canon timeline but all of it from his view. His thoughts on Megumi while he possessed him. Even the talk Yuji had with Gojo could've been shown because of the established resonance between Yuji and Sukuna.

Then should come his talk with Mahito. Then we would've understood and sympathized with it without problems .

We did not need the trio's last mission. The end scene of ch 270 was enough to make us imagine that mission on our own. This chapter could've been about sth with more meaning and the exact ending of it could've still been achieved without problems, all e.g. with Sukuna's last thoughts narrated over the happy faces of Gojo's students 😣

Overall I liked the chapter but I felt like sth was missing from this entire ending. It was safe for Gege to write I guess but it was also boring in a lost potential kind of way...

...and then I see that fucking time on that one panel and I think again about Gege wanting to troll us!

That's the same time we saw in ch 269 and I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. So now I'll make one last fucked up prediction, partly meant to be serious, mostly meant to entertain me these last few hours before the official gets released:

The digital release of chapter 271 is going to be a different chapter than the magazine release.

Why???? Because wtf not?? Shueisha and Gege probably too hate the leaks and don't you think this is only a problem in the anglosphere. Of course the Japanese side distributes these leaks around as well. From one small glimpse I saw, Japanese fans are wondering if JJK was cancelled because of this ending.

It would also fit with the dream theory or just my own thoughts from above about a differently structured last chapter.

So like, why not troll the fanbase? Many of whom have shown with Gojo's death chapter how they can't keep their eyes away from the leaks. Previously my own thoughts had been that WSJ could release final chapters like this exclusively on digital first to nip the leak problem in the bud.

But like, don't take this theory too seriously 😄

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I love the beastmen in Twist but every time I look at their ears my brain just cannot with my perceived anatomy of their skull. I know it can probably be explained very logically and stuff but in my head cannot unsee it as weird, like someone plopping some fluffy ears on top of a round skull and calling it a day T_T :'D

I actually studied human hearing and ear structures so I can simplify it and explain it logically—

Mammalian ear structures are actually very similar to one another. Therefore, the hearing pathways for lions (or cats in general), wolves, and hyenas are like that of a human’s. It would actually be easier to understand the integration of, for example, human anatomy and physiology with that of a lion as opposed to that of a fish (ie merfolk) since fish operate completely differently than humans. (To this day, merpeople A&P still confuses the heck out of me 😂)

If you look at both diagrams above, the human skull and the lion skull both have external auditory meatuses in similar locations; the meatus is a channel that funnels sound to the auditory nerves for further processing as it gets passed up to the brain.

Since beastmen ears are usually placed on top of their heads rather than on the sides of their heads, I’d wager that there’s just a difference in the angle of the ear canal, as illustrated in the diagrams below. Cats and such have more slanted canals, whereas human canals are more horizontal. As you can see, cats and humans have the same structures in their ears:

Brief aside: yes, there’s a teeny bony in your ear called the “malleus”. No, it will never not be funny to me that Malleus has the same name because my mind always defaults to the bone 😂

The greatest difference is actually in outer ear structures, where humans have the disadvantage due to how cartilaginous their pinna are. The placement of the ears is different, of course, but the real reason why, say, dogs and cats hear better than humans is because their outer ears are more mobile. Their ears are able to change direction and shape to adjust to where sound is coming from—and this helps with localizing the auditory sensations into the nerves that process “sound”. Humans can’t do this as easily, so their hearing range is smaller than some other animals.

[gryfflepuffinthetardis]

Sweet Jane Part One — Campbell Bain x Reader

Summary: Y/n was admitted to Saint Jude's hospital in Glasglow soon after her eighteenth birthday when she developed a case of psychogenic/traumatic mutism; there she meets a talkative, optimistic, idealistic, hyperactive nineteen-year-old boy with Manic depression who dreams of becoming a DJ, follow them through their story and learn what happened to Y/n.

Series Warnings: Past Toxic Relationship, Manipulative Ex, Mentions of Past Rape, Mental Health, Discrimination against the Mentally Ill/Neroudivergent, Traumatized Reader, Abusive Parents, Mentions of deceased family members, Stalking, Suicide, Reader doesn't handle men touching her well, Mentions of Sex, Bad Caretakers, Implied Non-Scottish Reader, Implied Short Reader, Campbell Bain's Dad is Terrible

Chapter Warnings: Reader refuses to speak; Loving Campbell Bain, Traumatized Reader, Selectively Mute Reader, PTSD Reader, Psychogenic Mute Reader, Traumatic Mute Reader, Manic Depressant Campbell Bain, Bipolar Campbell Bain, Schizophrenic Furgus, OCD Rosalie, Reader Developed Selective Mutism as a Coping Mechanism, Reader may have an intense type of anxiety caused by trauma, Reader is implied to not be Scottish or at least from Scotland (I am American but just add where you're from), Reader is implied to be shorter than the six-foot Campbell Bain

“You are a mystery to me, yet so familiar. Like a song I’ve never heard before, and a tune I’ve known my entire life.”

Y/N hadn't spoken a word since she was eighteen and long before that something had changed. Her parents finally decided enough was enough and sent her to Saint Jude's hospital in Glasgow.

Campbell had literally crashed into the new girl during his excitement at hearing that the Saint Jude's radio station would be reopened.

The girl screamed as he collided with her and she started screaming and kicking due to his body weight on her.

"Sorry. Sorry. Sorry." He said, hurriedly, getting off of her and holding a hand out to help her up but she just stared at him, terrified, "I'm sorry. Uh..." He realized he didn't recognize her, as far as he knew he was the youngest patient at Saint Jude's and this girl was around his age. This was exciting! "Are you new? I'm Campbell Bain, I'll be the bane of your life until one of us is discharged." He chortled at his own joke before he realized she was still of the floor, "Oh, let me help you up." He crouched down and took her hand, helped her up.

She stared at him with a confused look on her face but she didn't pull her hand away yet more out of shock than anything. Campbell offered her a smile before she ripped her hand out of his grip and ran off, leaving Campbell very confused.

He asked the nurses about the girl but none would give him proper answers, until he got to Stuart the orderlie, who should've been a patient instead but... you know, life.

"She's a looney." He said, blankly.

"Ai, yes. Yes. Yes. I know that much but what's her name? What's her deal?" Campbell prodded.

"Y/N." Was all he said.

--

A few days later, Eddie McKenna arrived to be the DJ for Saint Jude's, with assumption that he'd be able to tell the difference between the staff and the patients.

He had an interaction with Stuart and assumed he was a patient but found out that he was a nursing assistant. Well, that couldn't be good.

Then he met Campbell, who seemed perfectly friendly and nice before realizing he was a patient himself.

Campbell and Y/N were on better terms, now that she had stopped bolting on the other direction when he tried to talk to her. And they listened to Eddie's show as Y/N read Narnia.

Soon after the show, Eddie heard Campbell playing and singing, Summertime Blues on his guitar which was only slightly out of tune, which Eddie had played on his show. He saw Y/N correcting Campbell's finger placement on the guitar as he whined that it hurt his hand.

Campbell enthusiastically praised Eddie and explained on his poor timing and the patient’s dependence of television.

Y/N caught sight of something moving outside the window and she threw a guitar pick at Campbell, making him pout in her direction before seeing her pointing and they ran to window as he said, “Hang on, you’re not boring me or that, but I’ve just seen a friend of mine flying past the window.”

Y/N and Campbell leaned out the window to see the hospital’s Schizophrenic who despite the schtick his disorder stereotyped him as he was just the most gentle soul you’d ever meet, if a little eccentric, grappling down the side of the building.

“Fergus! What’re you doing!?” Campbell shouted after him as Eddie joined them, “you’re gonna hurt yourself!”

“Shall I get a nurse?” Eddie asked and Y/N shook her head.

“Fergus! You’re gonna miss your cocoa, you know!”

“I know.” Fergus told him.

“Can Y/N and I have it, then?” He asked.

“Help yourselves.” He told them.

“He’s escaping.” Eddie said, surprised how calm both of them were being so calm about this

“He’ll be knocking on the door in an hour or so. He always does.” Campbell reassured Eddie, “annoys the hell out of the staff but makes this one smile.” He nodded at Y/N as she sat on Campbell’s bed with his guitar, the look of fascination in Campbell's eyes was not lost on Eddie.

Campbell returned to his enthusiastic and impulsive idea-planning, the first being to bring up a story when a student nurse accidently gave everyone in the ward a laxative, making Eddie and Y/N look at him oddly and the only problem he saw with it was where he’d get that many laxatives.

“What about a request show?” He asked Eddie.

“I already thought of that. I haven’t enough records.” Eddie shot down that idea… well, he’s never disagreed with Campbell Bain before.

“So?”

“So? When folk request something, they usually like to be able to play it.”

“We just make them keep requesting until they hit something we actually have.” Campbell said, “‘if you can guess a record that we actually have in our library, then we will play it for you with a special dedication’.” He did a playful punch in the air, “who could resist?”

“It’ll never work.”

Y/N who had been playing with Campbell’s guitar, then played a jingly tune.

“You’re right, Y/N!” He declared, enthusiastically with an enthusiastic pointed finger at her and then he ran his hand through his light auburn-brown floppy hair, “We’ll need some jingles.” Y/N looked up when Campbell sang a jingle, “Hospital radio, Saint Juuuuude’s.” He smiled at Eddie, “that sort of thing.”

“You need singers to record jingles.”

Campbell picked up his guitar from Y/N and sat next to her, “and what exactly is sitting here before you?”

“A lunatic!” Eddie declared, making Y/N softly giggle.

“Aye, a singing lunatic!” Campbell agreed, enthusiastically. “We could record them in the station, aye?”

“Aye…” Eddie submitted.

“Brilliant!” Campbell exclaimed, going back to Eddie, “Now give me the key.” He held out his hand.

“What key?” Eddie asked.

“To the station.” Campbell said and ran to the door, looking out, “look, I’ve gotta start. Writing the jingles, rehearsing the singers, cataloging the albums.”

Eddie looked at Y/N as she looked back down and realized he hadn’t gotten her name, having been distracted Campbell’s… Campbell-ness and Fergus escaping. “Uh, ma’am… what’s your name again?” Eddie asked, making Y/N look up from a piece of paper she was now writing on, she gave him with a blank deadpan look at being called “ma’am”. She was only eighteen.

“That’s Y/N.” Campbell said.

“What’s your favorite album?” Nothing. She just looked at him, “can you sing?” She blinked twice and he turned back to Campbell, “what’s wrong with her?”

“Oh, she doesn’t speak. She hasn’t said a word since she got here.” Campbell said, “and there’s nothing wrong with her, she’s just looney like me!”

Eddie walked closer to him and asked as gently as he could, “Campbell, how exactly are you here?”

Campbell paused in which he faltered, knowing how his own father felt about his disorder before smiling, “Can you not guess? I’m manic.” Y/N looked up and smiled at him, making his eyes dart to her and a more genuine smile appeared on his lips before he reassured Eddie, “but don’t worry. The drugs I take make me completely stable. Except for headaches, of course.” He blinked in pain as he focused back on the painful headaches and he squeezed his eyes shut before blindly grabbing onto Eddie’s shirt who could sense a scene coming up as could Y/N who looked up to be amused by Campbell, “I get these headaches. I just comes over me and I cannae…” He flopped on his bed, next to Y/N and shouted out in pain, “ah, the bells! The bells!”

Y/N reached over and went to place her hand on Campbell’s back before stopping, hesitating to do so, not sure if they were close enough or if she wanted to admit that they were close enough and then suddenly Campbell’s mood shifted back to near manic and he shot himself up to look at Eddie, making Y/N pull her hand away, blinking briefly in surprise, “And I want my own show, by the way.”

“What?” Eddie asked.

“Well, after all this work, I think it’s only fair, don’t you?” He questioned.

“Campbell, I cannae just give you your own show.” Eddie protested, “you need training on the equipment.”

“So? Train me!” Campbell pleaded, eagerly. “I’ll take Friday nights.”

“Will that not clash with Brookside?” Eddie questioned.

Y/N looked at the window where they had gone to to shout after Fergus.

—

The next day, Campbell and Eddie were in the common room with Eddie standing shyly while Campbell did the opposite and shouted through a party megaphone while Y/N sat with Fergus, writing down something for him to read. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have an important announcement to make!” He spotted Fergus and Y/N and narrowed his eyes, “Fergus, stop flirting with Y/N.”

Y/N rolled her eyes and went to the couch rather bored now and put her headphones on.

Campbell and Eddie had announced the request show, while admitting that they had limited records. Eddie went to talk to Nana while Campbell stared at Y/N, feeling nervous to approach her since he worried she hated him with how scared she got when he interacted with her.

Then Fergus clapped him on the back, making him stumble and look at him, unamused before approaching the silent H/C-haired girl.

"Hey, Y/N," Campbell said, kindly, walking up to the silent girl but she didn't seem to hear him as she was listening to her Walkman. He tapped her shoulder, making her jump and stare at him with wide eyes just as she had when they first met. He gestured to her headphones, silently asking if he could take them off and she slowly nodded and he gently slid them off and could vaguely hear Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover by Sophie B. Hawkins.

"Hey, we're doing a request show. You have any requests?"

She looked at him for a good while before getting up and leaving. Campbell frowned and his spirits were diminished before leaning forward and face planting his face into the couch cushion, groaning.

—

Campbell showed Eddie the radio station now cleaned and useable thanks to him, Y/N, and Rosalie and as he left Eddie questioned Campbell about Nana and Campbell answered in his own hyperactive way before Eddie questioned him about his obvious crush on Y/N.

“The silent girl, uh… M/Y/N.” (Mispronunciation of Your Name)

“Y/N.” Campbell corrected, automatically in a slightly defensive tone.

“Is she your girlfriend?”

Campbell’s cheeks burned as they reddened and his heartrate quickened, “No. No. No. She’s new actually. Been here about a week. She… she’s a mystery.” He gave out a dreamy smile, “One I’d like to solve but…” He shrugged like, what can you do? —

Campbell was snoring when he was awoken by a friendly smack in the head. He woke up, groaning with confusion before turning on his light, illuminating Y/N who smile sweetly at him as she held something behind her back.

"Jesus, Y/N." He groaned, "what you do that for?" She just looked at him and he nodded, remembering who je was talking to, "right. Uh, what is it?"

Y/N brought a custom record sleeve out from behind her back and he slowly began to realize what she was trying tell him.

"Oh, you want me to play one of these songs during the show tomorrow, er��� today?" He asked.

She nodded and sat on the edge of his bed, making him kick around spazzily and awkwardly before sitting up, trying to make room for her as his heart pounded and he looked down at her, feeling her body heat up against his but forced himself not to think about that as it was a bit of a creepy thought to have at two in the morning as she showed him the songs on the back of the vinyl which was also handmade, she pointed at the first song: a cover of The Velvet Underground's Sweet Jane by Cowboy Junkies.

"Is that your favorite song?" He asked and she nodded. "Wait, these are all from different bands, how'd you get this?"

She pointed to herself, "you made it?" He gathered, "Who made the record?" She pointed to herself again and he just smiled at her impressed and enamored by her. "You are one mystery, Y/N L/N. You may be my favorite mystery.”

She smiled, telling him that she liked the idea of being a mystery to him and kissed his cheek, near the corner of his lip, nearly making him melt with a loud dreamy sigh before running off. He looked after he with a starstruck look of awe on his face before flopping back on his pillow, groaning.

—

The next day, Y/N shared a smile with Fergus before listening in on the radio to the show, standing and watching Campbell through the window.

“Good evening! This is Ready Eddie.” Eddie introduced, “and on my left is my right-hand man…”

“Campbell Bain.” Campbell introduced, not seeing Y/N watching him and the smile on her lips.

“And you’re listening to the first ever Ready Eddie Radio Request Road Show.” He gave Campbell a thumbs up and the nineteen-year-old pushed a button, making a jingle play.

“Ready Eddie’s road show. Ready, Eddie, go.”

“That’s right. This is the premiere. This is the first. And you can tell everyone that you were there. You heard it! You saw it!” Campbell said, enthusiastically before joking, “And they’ll tell you, it’s all part of your illness.”

Y/N giggled at his antics before realizing this and she zipped her leather jacket up over her shirt with the sarcastic quote on it.

“We’re playing requests from Ward Eleven this evening. This one is for Francine. I hope you’re listening, Francine.”

Campbell then teased, “I hope anyone’s listening.” He then saw Y/N watching him and let out an audible smile that melted his insides.

“Is anybody listening?” Eddie asked, “Is anybody out there?”

Then Help! By the Beatles started to play and soon the patients came out and Campbell ran out of the station to dance with some patients before more came out, including Fergus. He gave Y/N a smile and thumbs up as he flashed the part of the television he had removed.

Campbell ran back to Eddie and pulled his earphone off so he could talk to him, “the television’s broken, Eddie! There is a God!”

Eddie nodded in the direction of Y/N and Campbell’s face lit up and he ran to Y/N and taking her hands, trying to ease her into dancing. She shook her head before starting to shuffle awkwardly to the music before Campbell took her hands and pulled her against him so she danced with him to the beat of the music. She then giggled up against him and he smiled, triumphally.

He was about to comment on how beautiful her laugh when there was a BANG! And the music stopped, making them all exclaim in disappointment before Campbell and Y/N ran back to the station to see what was wrong.

“What’s wrong?”

“The mixing desk.” Eddie said, trying to fix it with his limited knowledge.

“Do something!” Campbell exclaimed.

“What can I do? I can’t even turn on the bathroom light without shocking myself.” Eddie remarked.

“Well, check the plug. Maybe it’s the fuse.” Campbell suggested as Y/N looked up at Fergus and gestured for him to come.

“It’s not the fuse.” Eddie sighed.

Campbell ran his hand through his floppy hair, “I cannae believe this. I’ve just had the world’s shortest career as a disk jockey.”

Fergus took out a screwdriver and headed inside to help and started to unscrew the screws of the mixing desk.

“Fergus, what are you doing?” Campbell asked.

“I’ll just have a look.” Fergus reassure him.

“No, don’t!” Eddie shouted, “don’t have a look there.”

Y/N helped Fergus lift the plate of the mixing desk as Eddie continued to try and stop Fergus and Y/N, “Fergus, Y/N, I’m asking you. Please, leave it alone”

“He’s gonna blow it up.” A patient said.

“He’s not!” Campbell protested.

“I think I know what the problem is.” Fergus told Eddie.

“He’s blowing it up.” Another patient said and the others started to chant Fergus’ name.

“Fergus, don’t, okay!? Just leave it alone. It’s all we’ve got.” Eddie pleaded and Y/N smacked Eddie’s shoulder when Stuart literally pushed her out of the way, making her squeak and stumble before Campbell caught her and glared at Stuart.

“Oi, watch where you’re going!” He shouted.

Stuart aggressively grabbed Fergus holding him in a near chokehold and Y/N tried to go forth to help but Campbell held her back, knowing she’d just be pushed away again, if not sedated.

“He’s not causing trouble, is he?” He asked Eddie and Y/N shook her head, frantically at Eddie.

“No, he’s just helping me, get the mixing desk going again.” Eddie muttered.

“Him? He couldn’t get his brain going again.” Stuart spat and Y/N scoffed, implying that she felt that better described Stuart than Fergus.

“Leave it, Stuart.” Isabella, the more kind nurse said, “it’s all over.”

Stuart let Fergus go and sulked out of the room, clearly upset that he didn’t get to hurt someone as Y/N gave him the middle finger.

Fergus closed the plate of the mixing desk and Y/N flipped the switch, making the light come back on.

“You two are geniuses.” Campbell gasped.

Y/N shook her head and pointed at Fergus like, no, he’s the genius.

“YOU’RE GENIUSES!” Campbell shouted and he slammed the door shut and got back to the microphone, “Sorry about the technical problems, folks. We’re now back on the air and we hope to keep it that way. Our next request is for Y/N and dedicated to her by me.” He chortled as he looked at her and clicked his tongue as he winked.

The cover of Sweet Jane played, making Y/N smile as Eddie looked at Fergus, giving him an apologetic and thankful smile as Fergus perpetually scowled before his lips curved into a gentle smile.

Later, Y/N helped Campbell clean up the hallways before they bumped into each other.

“Uh… so how did you know how to help Fergus?” He asked.

She took out her wad of paper and wrote: Learned. Taught.

He nodded, taking what he could get, “I always knew you were smart.” He said, honestly and he hesitated before leaning towards her to kiss her cheek like she had done the night, she shifted, conflicted as she could see the pure gentless in Campbell's personality, in his actions, in his eyes, and she could feel it in his cheek kiss. He had hesitated, not wanting to overstep boundaries and he was still nervous about his decision but before she could react Eddie ran out of the room, making them break apart and move out of the way before he rammed into them.

*This is a series from my Wattpad, so I'm moving in to Tumblr and Archive of my Own. There is an entire subplot later on of stalking and the cause of the reader's muteness or mutism (which ever is the correct term). Am I the only one who feels like Campbell Bain might also have ADHD or is it just because of his Bipolar/Manic Depression. I'm usually good at this but I'm having a hard time differentiating the two or maybe it's just David Tennant.

[triviareads]

i love your bridgerton takes and i’m curious - if you had a chance to rewrite s2 of bridgerton, what changes would you make?

ah thanks! you know, it's been two years and at this point I've kinda resigned myself to Shondaland's priorities (unnecessary drama, lady whistledown) and what they're disregarding (people of color, queer rep, the actual historical romance-ness of it all), but here's how I would rewrite Bridgerton season two:

Without explaining exactly what India's role in this post-but-not-really-post-racial world is, I'm uncomfortable with the colonial implications there as well as the fact that that they made the Sharmas from India, as opposed to the casting the exact same actors— Simone Ashley, Charithra Chandran, Shelley Conn— and having them be from Somerset. Hell, they could have kept some of the same customs like the Haldi and oiling hair, but made the Sharmas like allllll the other POCs in the ton; no one knows how they got there, but they're equal now so.... yay.

I also dislike how culturally confused the Sharmas were; they were using words from multiple Indian languages because the writers thought they'd do this weird pan-Indian culture for them. Pick a language, pick a region for them to be from, and stick to it

"Kathani" as a name should never have existed: here's all my research on why it's a name that means nothing, which is the antithesis of Indian culture, where name meanings matter. it's also insulting that her "actual" name was only used once; clearly the writers thought it was too ethnic to be used when she was introduced to us and other characters, but they wanted to pander to desi people so they included ONE Kathani in the end.

I want the Sharmas as a group to have WAY more screen time. I also think the family dynamic was royally mischaracterized. The writers were lazy and decided to make Kate's role in the family echo Anthony's which resulted in her basically.... taking over? And the results were disastrous even though she obviously meant well. A more feminist take, to me, would be this idea of all 3 Sharma ladies doing their part and pulling through together (well Mary and Kate a little more than Edwina) because there is no patriarch to provide for them, and that's something they could really have honed in on. So Kate and Mary would be making a lot of tough choices together, while Edwina is painfully cognizant that she's gonna be the one to marry up and provide for her family.

Because the Sharmas would be from Somerset, I think their backstory would be very similar to the book; dad is dead, they've scraped and saved up for one season, Kate is going to make a *sensible* match in the country (as opposed to having no marriage aspirations at all, which I found so weird considering she was 18ish when her dad died and COULD have married to save her family, regardless of her dowry or lackthereof she's a beautiful woman whose father clearly had some status as a royal secretary so that entire line of reasoning that she HELD OFF on marriage and decided to train Edwina to be the Ideal Debutante is bullshit on the writer's part to me) but Edwina is gonna be the shining star diamond who marries a rich enough dude to save all of them from destitution

Newton makes Anthony fall into the lake while he's still courting Edwina (similar to the scene's placement in the book)

And similar to the book I'd much rather Anthony take his courtship of Edwina only so far, like, honestly I'd be chill if he compromised Kate while still courting Edwina. I think it's unrealistic for Edwina to be entirely fine with this turn of events like she was in the books but the blowout would never have been necessary, and quite frankly, I think Edwina shrieked at Kate about the wrong things in the show. I'd personally be horrified my sister is conducting an affair with my suitor/fiancé and more importantly for Edwina, I think I'd want to know why, if my sister liked this guy, does she not think she's good enough for him and why does she keep throwing Edwina at him?

I'd do an extended study scene where not only do they talk about Edmund, but they also talk about Kate's dad who, when he died, left an even bigger gap in their family because like I said earlier, he was the male figure and it was SO Hard without a male in the family back then; The Bridgertons were actually lucky because Anthony was of age and was able to take over where it mattered most, with Violet's guidance. So that's what I'd want them to talk about and bond over.

I'd LOVE the book compromise moment; I think it's the most hysterical part of TVWLM and I'd want Portia Featherington to utter the immortal lines "Lud, girl, he had his mouth on your bubbies, and we all saw it." But then I think Kate should have refused to marry him because she she can't reconcile her dislike of him with her attraction buuuuuuuut then they have a blowout argument in the gazebo and then he eats her out and dickmatizes her into agreeing to marry him. They should have fucked a lot sooner than episode 7 because the chemistry was THERE and a compromise-turn-marriage plot like the book would allow for it. So less face-breathing, more fucking.

And that would lead to the wedding we all wanted to see except it's fraught with drama because a) the scandal and b) Kate still thinks she's Anthony's second choice

I'd loooooove a wedding night seduction scene

And then the issue becomes similar to the book's conflict at this point— Anthony still fears for his mortality, while Kate is falling for him but feels trapped in this marriage because she can't.... express those feelings because Anthony doesn't want love in their marriage

And then, fine, Kate has that riding accident except this time after she confesses her love and he freaks out and the accident is the nudge they need to make up and finally confess their love for each other

No Cousin Jack— that was such a bullshit plot because a) if he wasn't dicking down Portia while being engaged to her daughter what even was the point and b) he left in such a definitive way at the end of S2 so again, what was the point

We didn't need an episode devoted to the inner machinations of how Lady Whistledown works, nor did we need Marina implicitly endorsing polin which is so fucking disgusting considering Penelope literally shamed her into a botched abortion. I'd also like for Penelope to not microaggress Kate (calling a brown woman a "beast")

I think the Sheffield plot could have been reworked in some way; sure maybe Mary ran from her aristocratic family to marry a poor gentleman and they disowned her and now they're dangling an inheritance over their heads. I think it could have been more neatly done.

Colin's ponzi scheme crusher arc was unnecessary and dull

I liked where they took Benedict's arc actually; you really got the sense he wanted love but doesn't quite know what it is yet (his poem he gives to Anthony feels like he's worshipping a muse, not loving them for who they are), and he's in a shitty place by the end and doubting his abilities as an artist...... which would be a GREAT time for a love interest for him to come in

Eloise slumming it for a hot minute could have been done wayyyyy better starting with a hotter man, more chemistry, and more exploration

[lucky-katebishop]

I Continue to Read Tim Drake Comics...

... and i’m getting tired. I think it’s just cause these issues were a big whole mess of unfinished stories. All these screenshots are from Robin 1993 issues 10-13. I’ve made two other posts about this :) @teenyturtle​ (if you want me to stop tagging you for these things let me know!!)

I finished reading this an hour ago and I still cannot believe this is real. What do you MEAN Robin!Dick shows up out of the blue and helps Tim out on a case? And then disappears in a flash of light?! It felt like I was reading fanfiction lol

Tim listens to metal music: confirmed (we knew this already though)

Harvey Dent. Has a robot dressed up as Robin. For him to destroy. The Arkham therapists are really top notch. 

Ouchie! Ouch! Jack Drake’s top notch parenting! I could write paragraphs about their relationship! Especially in conjunction to Tim and Bruce’s (nonexistent) relationship!

I just want to appreciate that Tim is too tiny for the batcomputer chair. The batchair if you will.

I am very confused about the placement of Jason’s plaque. I’m kinda iffy on the floorplan of the batcave in general. But why is it so... out in the open? Did Bruce do this on purpose to torture himself? I know there aren’t walls or anything, but still?

Here’s another shot of it. It’s not as close to the batcomputer as I previously thought, but in another picture it looks like it’s right next to the stairs not perched up against a wall or anything. It’s just there. Come on, Bruce!

Um. UM! Bertie Wooster reference?!!!! HELLO?! Kind of... why did they change the name? Is it ‘cause my edition is a bootlegged version? Or is this on the official comic? If it is, I’m confused, ‘cause this is ‘94, maybe ‘95 when this was released, and the Bertie books are from the 1920s (technically 1915 and copyright says that any books released before I think 1923 are deemed public domain, so why the censorship? Unless the very quick google job I did is more complicated)

Dick continues to be the only person to look out for Tim.

It’s rough going for you, lil buddy.

This letter to the columnist means literally everything to me. I, too, find everyone cute except Bruce and want Lady Shiva to beat me up for calling her cute. 

[muddyorbsblr]

relinquish the crown: atonement or debasement

Series Masterlist See my full list of works here!

Placement: before the main story; during 'from a world away'

Summary: The visiting prince from Alfheim wishes to prove to you that he's a man reformed, but wasn't quite prepared for what you had in mind.

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Word Count: 4k [i hope you have a coffee or a tea ready]

Warnings: themes of incest (he's adopted but still); Damien (yes he's a warning now); other than that, none really [let me know if i missed anything!]

Things to be aware of: fluff between Loki & YN…that is all

"Princess, allow me this moment just to thank you for allotting me your time for the day," the crown prince of Alfheim, Damien, stated as he walked by your side and continuously tried to take your hand since you left the war room. "So where shall we begin? Perhaps you could show me your favorite spot in the--"

"Did you mean what you said earlier, your highness?" you cut him off, killing his sentiment mid-question. "About wanting for the opportunity to prove yourself reformed?"

The confusion that flashed across his face for a touch longer than a moment told you that the words were exactly that. Words. Empty promises, utterances meant only to appease your opinion of him, but the prince had no intentions to actually show action to follow through on this promise.

He stumbled over his words. "I erm--I uhh--Of course, Princess! My behavior and treatment toward the women in this realm was wretched, and cast a blindingly unbecoming light on me in your eyes. And in the eyes of so many others, I can only guess. And while I admit I'm deserving of that light, I would like for the chance to dim it somehow. Show you I've grown and changed. Matured, even."

More empty words, you thought to yourself, forcing yourself to give him an accommodating smile as you felt the beginnings of another headache pounding away at you. "Very well then. That is where we shall begin."

Damien gave you a smirk, stepping closer to you and gently taking your hand in his to raise to his lips. "Princess, I am truly and deeply sorry for my beha--"

"Oh no, Prince Damien," you cut him off once more. "You can apologize to me all you want, but it would all be for naught." You gave him a smirk of your own when you saw the confusion take residence on his features. "For you see, I am not the one whose decency you besmirched. It is not my place to forgive you for the actions you committed upon others. These actions, namely, being sending whichever companion you'd chosen at that time out of your chambers with clothing ripped to near shreds."

"Your highness surely you don't mean you want me to apologize to--"

"The women you did  disgrace," you answered his unfinished question. "Every. Single. One of them."

He most likely couldn't hold back the incredulity that flashed across his eyes for the briefest moment to save his life before he straightened out his expression to one that seemed nearly fearful. Interesting choice. "Very well, Princess. If that is what must be done to earn your time."

You gave him a tight-lipped smile, striding on down the hall on your way to the robe laundering facilities, hoping to find Halley and Narda on their way to retrieve your grandmother's dresses . "Wonderful. You can start with my friends, the Queen's ladies in waiting." The way his shoulders slumped for a fraction of a second before he made a visible effort to straighten his posture before resuming his strides did not go unnoticed.

You soon crossed paths with Halley, already carrying an armful of the Queen's robes. "Princess! I didn't expect to see you here at this hour," she greeted you, wide smile already gracing her features as her form began to shake in her attempt to curtsy despite the load she was carrying.

"Please, my friend, none of those formalities. Especially when you are carrying such precious cargo," you said jokingly, motioning towards the robes in her hands. "There's actually someone with me at the moment that wishes to speak with you." You motioned towards the prince, noting the panic that showed on her face before she tried to curtsy once more. "Halley, really it's quite alright, I am sure that the visiting prince will understand the need to forego that pleasantry, is that not right, your highness?"

"Of course, Princess," he responded, exerting considerable effort to not grit his teeth before addressing the lady in waiting. "Lady Halley, it has come to my attention that my behavior--" His gaze flickered to yours for the briefest moment and caught your pointed glare, making him stumble on his words. "I have come to the realization that my treatment of you when last we met was unbecoming of myself and you were undeserving of such behavior. It would be my honor for you to accept my most sincere apology."

Halley's eyes widened, blinking rapidly as if trying to reorient herself on what had just transpired before her eyes. You gave her a single nod, silently telling her to humor you, hoping that she would get the message that you were the one that had put him to this task. "O-Of course, your highness. I would be more than delighted to accept your apology. It is wonderful to see you once more gracing the halls of the palace. If I may ask, what brings you to Asgard once more?"

"Truth be told, I wish to court the princess." She blanched at his candor. "In hopes of winning her respect and earning to right to court her, first I must amend my wrongdoings and show that I am someone worthy of her grace and respect."

"How…admirable," she commented, her tone rife with hesitation before turning her attention to you. "Princess, may I have a quick consult? About the…Winter Solstice festival?" You both walked over a few feet away from the visiting prince before she spoke once more in hushed tones. "Are you truly to let him court you? Surely you can feel how hard he is pretending to be sincere as well."

"Of course I won't, Halley, I'm not ridiculous," you answered her, doing your best not to let out a bout of chuckles that would give away that you most definitely were not discussing the festival. "But I would not miss out on the chance to watch him strain himself trying to impress me by 'bearing his punishment bravely on his shoulders'." You held up a hand to signal her to stifle her laughter, motioning toward the dresses that would drop from her hands if she hadn't.

"Well then in that case, let me not keep you, Princess Y/N," she said in a louder tone, no doubt for the obviously eavesdropping prince's benefit. "I am sure you have quite the arduous day ahead of you. Prince Damien?" She turned to face the prince, slightly bowing her head in a show of respect. "I wish you the very best of luck. The Princess is one of the most intelligent, most compassionate people I have ever met. You would be very fortunate to have her by your side if she were to allow your courtship."

She began to walk away back down the hall to your grandmother's chambers when you called out to her one more time. "Would you happen to know where I can find Narda?"

"The storage closets," she answered back without turning her gaze. You could practically hear her knowing smirk from the tone in her voice. "Just follow the sounds, Princess."

You had an inkling that the sounds that she had been referring to were sounds of pleasure, but you still were not prepared to actually hear the sounds emanating from the thick, wooden, closed door of the storage closet. Out of respect for her privacy, and decency considering your present company, you knocked loudly on the door three times. "Narda? Are you in there, I need to speak with you about something."

The next sounds were hushed, frantic whispers that you were unable to decipher even if you would press your ear against the wood. A few moments later the door opened to reveal…not the lady in waiting quite yet. But another familiar figure. Tall, broad, and blond.

"Fandral…!" You couldn't help but smirk at the discovery.

"Princess…" he trailed off, side stepping past you with his eyes trained to the ground and refusing to meet yours. "I suspect I will see you at training in a while? Considering your attire--"

"Not for another few hours, do not worry," you cut him off. "I was training earlier and saw no reason to change." He kept walking down the hall, undoubtedly to tell your father that you'd caught him in a compromising position and begging him to ensure that you don't tell another soul. "Fandral!" The warrior turned to face you, expression still sheepish despite his straightened stance. "If you hurt her, I will kill you myself. Am I understood?"

Everything about him relaxed at that moment. "I would never dream of hurting her, Y/N."

His words had you breaking out into a warm smile. "Good. And do not worry, one of these days you will get me back for what I just witnessed. Quite possibly it will be worse." The playfully scandalized look he gave you finally dissipated the tension in the hall, causing you both to break out into chuckles before he waved haphazardly in your direction and resumed his march down the hall.

"Y/N, I didn't expect you," Narda greeted you with a deceptively casual tone, a chill running through your body when you saw her expression jolt into one of apprehension when she spotted your company.

"I surmise you didn't expect anyone, dear friend," you shot back, lightly elbowing her side when she made her way to you. "I have someone here that wishes to speak with you." You motioned towards the prince that had her visibly frozen where she stood, and if you stared long enough you could swear that the memories from her last encounter with the visiting prince were returning to her so loudly that you could see the tawdry flashbacks yourself.

"Erm…Lady Narda, good afternoon," Prince Damien began, his gaze constantly flickering to you as you resumed to look on at what was transpiring in front of you with a warrior's stance. "I would very much like for you to know that I deeply regret the way I treated you when last we saw each other. It was unbecoming of me as a gentleman and you were completely undeserving of such treatment. I hope that you will accept my most sincere apology," he addressed her, bending his body to bow and keeping his gaze trained to the cobblestone pathway.

Narda looked to you, eyes questioning this turn of events. "He wishes to court me, my friend," you offered in explanation. "He is doing this in hopes of proving that he has in fact become someone worthy of my time."

"Ah," was her only response, nodding her head in understanding before addressing the elven prince. "In that case, I wish you the very best of luck, Prince Damien. If you are to succeed, you would have a fiercely protective partner by your side." She curtsied and began her way towards the laundering facilities. "Shall I retrieve your dresses as well, Y/N?"

"Oh no, please don't burden yourself. I'll retrieve them after my training with--" You cut yourself off, a mischievous grin stretching across your face. "With your beloved."

"Your highness!" she squealed, a brilliant smile overtaking her features at the thought.

"Tell me I'm wrong." As expected, she said not a word. "That's what I thought. We're off to the kitchens. I will see you tomorrow, my friend."

You'd made it down the length of a few halls on the way to the kitchens before the prince spoke again. "Did you truly mean all of them, Princess?"

"Yes." Your tone made no room for argument, the resounding timbre echoing throughout the empty hall and once again making his features flinch. "Did you truly think that it would stop once you'd apologized to my friends?" You stopped your strides and turned your entire body to face him, stepping so close that he could feel the irritation radiating off your body if he paid close enough attention. "You truly wanted to get the opportunity to know me, Prince Damien? Then know this, my priority will always be that the people who work for me and my family are treated with the respect that they deserve. That they are rightfully compensated for the work that they do and that they will be filled with the right motivation to keep on doing these jobs well for the decades and centuries to come.

"So I take it quite personally when visitors come out of the blue and disrupt that peace. When I walk down the hall and encounter a member of the palace staff and it seems as if the light has left their eyes because they were just sent away from said visitor's guest chamber with robes ripped to shreds without a second thought. You wish to know me? Then today you will know the basics the best way you can, by hearing what these women have to say to you when you inform them of your intention to court me. Today you learn the basics from the best people who can teach them to you. If you survive, then perhaps  tomorrow I will allow you to learn the ancillaries."

The prince was so visibly shaking when you concluded your impromptu tirade that you were almost certain he would be leaving Asgard with his metaphorical tail between his legs by next daybreak. "Lead the way, then, your highness," he said so mutely you could have sworn you heard a scared little whimper from him at the end.

You assessed his features with a once over before turning once again and resuming your walk towards the kitchens. "We will save the chambermaids for last. If my memory serves me right, that was the concentration of your attentions, especially considering I had to redirect and rearrange their duties during your prior visit so that those who fell victim to what charms you attempted to be brandishing about did not need to be subject to a repeat performance. This trip to the kitchens would be beneficial to you. Give you a chance to hydrate before that surely trying task." The way the prince flinched at the vitriol in your tone did not go unnoticed.

When you walked through the doors to the kitchens, the staff immediately stood to attention and greeted you, relaxing the moment you held your hands up and gave them a signal to be at ease once more. "Your highness, what a pleasant surprise," the head cook addressed you. "To what do we owe the honor of having a second royal grace us this beautiful afternoon?"

His wording had your brows knit together. "Second?" Normally the only other royal that would find their way into these parts of the castle was your grandmother, ensuring that any whimsical craving from either yourself, your father, or from Volstagg could be satisfied at a moment's notice. And those visits would only happen twice in a moon.

"Yes, your highness. Prince Loki is currently in the back. Something about post-training rituals?" Your ears perked up at the words, the dull aching in your head that had been plaguing you since you started this apologetic tour through the palace dissipating somewhat. "Are you here for the same?"

"Not quite," you answered, straightening your back and addressing the entire kitchen now. "I assume that at least a good handful of you acquainted yourselves with the prince Damien on his previous trip to Asgard." The shifty gazes and subtle nods were all the response you needed. "Those of you who have not had the displeasure, I recommend stepping out and taking a momentary breather. Alternatively, stay and stand witness. Because for those who would remain, the prince wishes to speak with you. Individually, not collectively."

The effort it took to hold back the smirk when you spotted how the elven prince's jaw clenched in evident frustration should have been considered its own bout of training. The staff broke out into two groups, not a single one from the group of unacquainted taking the option of stepping out, but rather corralling to the side as the formerly acquainted group stayed where they were and the prince walking over to the one closest to him and starting with the same spiel he'd already spouted twice before.

You surmised that this effort would take quite some time, so you approached the head cook. "The Prince is still in the back," he answered your unspoken question, motioning toward the small room in question.

He chortled at your response when you motioned toward the scene transpiring before their eyes. "Enjoy the show." And then you made your way toward the small back room, a slight smile tugging at the corner of your mouth as you spotted Loki sitting by his lonesome, munching away at a sandwich. "Post-training rituals?"

A smirk began to grace the god's face. "I thought that was you I heard outside, little Princess." He pushed out the chair next to him, moving his plate a few inches to the side so that it was in front of both seats. "Are you hungry?"

The tension that had settled right between your shoulders since you walked out of the war room with the elven prince relaxed immensely at the gesture, the ache in your head also waning away once you situated yourself in the empty seat. "A touch famished, if I may be completely honest."

You felt your body settle into a sense of complete comfort at the feel of him tucking a stray lock of hair behind your ear. "Darling, you should know by now. You're always free to be honest with me." He scooted his chair to be closer to yours, wrapping his arm around you in a warm embrace as you rested your head on his shoulder, nibbling away at the half of the sandwich he saved on the plate for you.

"Alright then. Being completely honest? You owe me an apology."

"And whatever for?"

"I only went through the horrendous exercise of humoring this prince because you advised me to give him a chance." You felt his muscles tense against you, letting out a sigh that fanned the hairs at the top of your head. "It's so far proving to be an immense waste of my time. He claims he wishes to prove himself reformed and yet when given that chance he whines and makes faces as if he's no more mature than a child just learning how to walk and speak."

"Ah, so I take it the tour of the palace apologizing to the women he bedded and discarded as if they were barely people in his eyes was not his idea of proving himself?"

"He presumed that giving me that apology was sufficient enough to prove his point."

"How daft."

"Imbecilic," you agreed, feeling a bit more yourself as the sound of your combined laughter filled the room. "On a lighter note, do you remember how we suspected a few weeks ago that Fandral's been in a secret courtship with a lady within the palace?"

"Yes, and he's been keeping his mouth shut and being shockingly good at keeping this particular secret no matter how I've tried to finagle--"

"I know who it is," you declared proudly, giving him a boastful close-lipped smile around your food as he looked upon you with wide eyes and mouth agape.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense, little Princess. You know it's cruel to tease." You should have known better than to keep goading him, shaking your head defiantly despite the tips of his fingers ghosting over your ribcage, already lightly tracing lines over your training gear. "Tell me."

"I only meant to tell you that I know who it is. You'll have to find out the name all on your own, my Prince." You reached over to grab the goblet on his side of the table and took a sip of the drink, your brows furrowing when your lips met water. "I half expected this to be wine."

The god let out a few chuckles as he took the goblet from you and downed the rest of the drink before setting it back down on the table. "If you expected wine then you've been spending far too much time with my brother."

"Of course I have. You know, seeing as he is my father, after all," you shot back, already bracing yourself for him to attempt extracting the little morsel of gossip from you. The time to adequately prepare had long gone, however, already finding yourself unable to maneuver out of his hold.

"You still owe me a name, little Princess," he cooed at you, his other hand already poised at the other side of your torso. "You need not make this any harder on yourself."

The slightest wiggle of his fingertips against you made you jolt in his arms, already moving you to stand in your attempt to escape. "You are far too resourceful to resort to this to get a simple name--LOKI!" You broke out into a fit of giggles as you tried in vain to squirm away from his relentless tickling at your ribs. "You'll never…get me to break…" you wheezed through your laughter.

He kept at you for a few moments more before he finally relented, keeping his hands at your sides as you both stood from your seats. "One day I will find what gets you to break, darling." His hold tightened on you for a fraction of a moment, tickling you once again and causing you to let out a high-pitched yelp that pierced through the low buzz of the conversations taking place outside the room. The silence from the other side seemed like a presence in and of itself.

"Is everything alright in there, Princess?" Your entire body slumped and went slack in Loki's arms, letting out a frustrated sigh at the sound of the other prince's voice floating into the room and reminding you that you still had an entire group of palace staff to visit and have him apologize to.

"Everything is just fine, your highness. Carry on," you called out, righting yourself and straightening your stance and meeting the gaze of the god before you. "I should go. We still have the chambermaids to apologize to, and that would be the concentration of his attentions in his prior visit." You scrunched your nose at him before stepping out of his hold. "I suppose you could consider us even."

"Even?"

"Yes. You claim I owe you a name. And you…still owe me an apology."

He stepped closer to you once more, framing your face in his hands, thumb swiping at the corner of your mouth to wipe away at a stray crumb. It was at that moment that a bizarre image flashed through your mind for the briefest moment.

You were seated across each other at a small table during a festival, speaking about pollen that drove whoever had inhaled it to madness until they mated with the one they loved most. You had also shared your meal with each other that day.

Before you could focus on the image, it faded from your mind as quickly as it appeared.

"Darling?" Loki's voice brought you back to the present moment, the concern rife in his expression as he looked upon you. "Are you alright? Was it your head again?"

You assessed yourself, your confusion intensifying when you realized that there was no accompanying ache with that image, no pounding sensation that you were constantly tempted to pound back at just so that you could convince yourself that you'd tried something. "No," you mumbled, shaking your head as if it would shoo away the remaining remnants of that image that lingered. "Must have just been my imagination."

If only you knew that it wasn't simply an image conjured by your mind. But rather it was a memory. A memory not too far past, of the Autumnal Equinox festival. A memory from a time when you were finding yourself madly in love with the god that held you so delicately in his hands. A memory you would have still had with you with its full context had you not asked your grandmother to cast that blasted spell on you.

Had you known that morning that the woman that Loki spoke of during the masquerade ball, the woman he deemed dangerous to love…was you.

A/N: Wait hold on what just happened--Was that a memory? 👀

Hope you all enjoyed this little 'deleted scene' vibe from the last chapter. I knew that if I included this in 'from a world away' it would make the chapter way too long, and I was right. That chapter would have been 11.6k words if I included this 🤣🤣 Brace yourselves, because another entry into the 'locked away' chronicles is also coming today. And then I'm working on part 2 of 'the final Lady Sharpe' and also…'the tea ninja' 🥴

‘everything’ taglist: @sailorholly @loopsisloops @unlucky-number-13 @imalovernotahater @coldnique @loz-3 @huntress-artemiss @salempoe @vickie5446 @athalialaufeyson @lokiprompts @sarahscribbles @kats72 @kikster606 @evelyn-kingsley @lokixryss @thomase1 @mischief2sarawr @peaches1958 @lovingchoices14 @goblingirlsarah @iamlokisgloriouspurpose @creationsbyme @maple-seed @mjsthrillernp @ladyofthestayingpower @mygfloki @sititran @glitterylokislut @ozymdias @fictive-sl0th @lovelysizzlingbluebird @lokidbadguy @mochie85 @silverfire475 @joyful-enchantress @dangertoozmanykids101 @elizabethmidnight2017 @lokidokieokie @lunarnights95 @superficialdomina

Loki taglist: @calumance @severuslovebot @moonlightreader649 @i-stand-with-loki @nixymarvelkins @infinitystoner @lokisgoodgirl @purplegrrl27 @thedistractedagglomeration

[phantomskeep]

Putting the "Fun" Back in "Funeral" Excerpts Pt. 1

okay yes I am impatient and I kind of want feedback on this idea, so have some excerpts from the Dead on Main fic I'm writing! \o/ (also I have no idea how to format things LOL). There is a very, VERY large timeskip between E1 and E2, btw. Criticisms and opinions are very welcomed!

Warning for small bits of violence in E1, and for mention of blood in E2 as well as a suggestive ending ;)

------- Excerpt One -------

Danny sometimes wishes he could travel through time. Don’t get him wrong! He knows the danger of messing up the time stream (Dan, Desiree, and Clockwork all taught him that much) but there are still times when he’ll sit on top of a building, staring at the stars, wondering what he would change given half the chance.

Currently, however, he was debating on his life choices while not on a rooftop.

White gloved hands shakily grasped broken concrete, slowly lifting his broken body out of the crater in the middle of some random street. The latest ghost who decided to try their hand at using Danny as a punching bag was one that he hadn’t encountered before. His usual roster of ghostly enemies still came by, of course. Ember, Skulker, Lunch Lady, Johnny 13, Kitty and Box Ghost at least visited Amity Park once a week, if not more. However, the ghostly entity that Danny was currently facing? He had never seen them before.

As Danny raised himself out of his impromptu resting place he considered the being before him. Dark, void black skin and fur greeted him. The ghost’s face was an odd cross between a horse’s and dogs - long, block-shaped snout with a mouth reaching right up to under their dark red eyes. Pointed ears flicked wildly back and forth between a long mane that reached just up until the collar of the ghost’s thick golden necklace. The ghost’s choice of clothes baffled the white-haired ghost greatly, black dress shirt and (oddly enough) bright golden skinny jeans? Really? Who died and thought that was a good fashion choice?

Yeah, Danny was just as confused.

The other ghost looked down at the young halfa, “I cannot fathom how you are the one Hotep described to me.” He sneered, clearly mocking Danny. “The great Akuris will easily defeat such a pathetic child.”

Danny gasped, mock-offended. “Well, Mr. Fursuit, I will have you know that at least I don’t dress like an accountant in the middle of a mid-life crisis.” He smirked before resting a soul-piercing green glare at the larger ghost floating above where Danny stood. “Or would it be mid-afterlife crisis?”

With that, Danny leapt back into action. He swung a powerful punch directly into Akuris’s long muzzle causing the dark ghost to be pushed back. Amity Park’s ghostly hero did not relent on his assault, though. Danny followed the other ghost’s backwards momentum to bodily slam into his opponent’s soft belly in a move he often saw Dash pull during his football practices. The twenty year old halfa quickly grabbed the Fenton thermos off of his belt loop, taking the opportunity to finally capture the winded ghost.

A great sigh left Danny’s body as he hovered in the air, surveying the damage leftover from the fight between the two. It was well around two in the morning, judging by the placement of the twinkling stars. Today was the day of his coronation - exactly five years after he defeated Pariah Dark.

Originally, Danny was told he was technically king of the Ghost Zone in the aftermath of the battle. The young ghost had argued with the mysterious time-themed ghost named Clockwork who appeared. Danny was successfully able to get a five-year grace period of kingly procrastination.

Since then, Danny had grown up a little bit. He defeated his alternate evil self, discovered new powers, traveled through time on Clockwork’s request, graduated highschool, took a gap year to focus solely on fighting ghosts, and successfully never let his parents or the world know about his ghostly half. All in all, Danny considered it a successful five years.

All good things must come to an end, though. The half ghost kept staring dejectedly at the stars so far away. He knew that even though he probably *should* tell his parents what was going on, the fear of everything going wrong lurked in the back of his mind. After the events of Dan, the young man pulled away from his parents bit by bit. It was grief that drove Danny to rip out the most vulnerable parts of himself, after all. If he had nothing to grieve about then he would never be pushed into doing something as drastic like destroying the world, right?

Jazz disagreed very heavily with his mentality, but he was fine with that.

Another sigh left the poor halfa’s body and he re-hooked the Fenton Thermos to his beltloop. He might as well go back home to continue to lick his wounds before Danny had to, unfortunately, be crowned king. What a shitty Tuesday.

------- Excerpt Two -------

A delightful aroma wafted through the late morning air, easily slipping between the weak rays of sunlight filtered through the windows. Jason slowly blinked as he shuffled his way out of bed, slightly wincing when his bruised leg hit the time-worn wooden floors. He still hadn’t fully recovered from the latest fight with Scarecrow – something Danny certainly wasn’t letting him forget. Thinking of the ghostly man, Jason glanced over to the other side of their shared bed only to see the sheets rumpled but obviously used. With a small sigh, Jason pushed himself off his mattress and started his sleepy trek into the apartment’s kitchen.

The sight of a smaller, pale man with his exposed back to Jason was always something the man longed to see. The first time Danny was relaxed and comfortable enough around Jason’s home (and by extension, Jason himself) to make the pair breakfast had rapidly become one of the man’s most favorite memories. It made the middle of his chest hum with feelings of pride-safe-I-did-that-yes-home-safe. Of course, seeing his boyfriend only in space-themed boxers was something Jason loved for another reason, as well.

Danny let out a small laugh, pushing back against the strong chest bracing him. “Jason,” he whined, dragging out the man’s name. The other man just hummed and dropped his chin on top of Danny’s head. Large arms wrapped securely around the younger man’s torso and waist, Jason’s steady breaths moving Danny’s smaller body as the Crime Lord hugged his lover from behind.

“Yes?” The taller man asked.

Danny half-turned his head to look into Jason’s similar crystal blue eyes. “If you keep this up the pancakes are going to end up burnt,” he warned half-heartedly.

A deep chuckle shook the smaller man’s body and Danny couldn’t help but purr contently at the feeling. Jason always made the younger feel so safe. Even when he came back to their shitty little apartment deep into the heart of Crime Alley covered in blood, or when the Pit Rage got the better of Jason so early into their relationship. Jason, to Danny, felt so much like home sometimes it physically hurt.

“What if,” Jason said slyly, blue eyes-half lidded with promise. He leaned closer onto Danny’s body, his mouth ghosting across a pointed ear. “I wanted something different for breakfast instead?”

Danny gasped as Jason finally captured his lips in a kiss. Calloused, practiced hands ran over cold cheeks and through soft hair. The half-ghost ran one hand along the stove’s counter, finding the dial to turn off the stove quickly. The man turned around in the comforting embrace before fully facing Jason.

---------------

aaaand yeah that's it! I'm slowly finishing up chapter one and I'm hoping to get it posted this weekend ^-^

[oliverthedectective]

Chapter One:

~Not Stanley~

Trigger Warnings: This story holds elements of both existential, psychological, and other horror elements. Especially in the beginning of the story. This includes feelings of dysphoria, memory loss, dread, and physical and psychological pain. Please be aware of this and stop now if you can not handle these potential topics at this time. Please take care of yourself! Your health is more important than my silly little story.

Reminder: This is not a completed chapter! Just a little sneak peak posted with the intent to get some feedback! This is an ongoing story.

“This is a story about a man named Stanley.” 

I groggily thought about how weird it was to hear such a voice as a blaring headache forced my eyes to tighten even furthur. Even still I forced my eyes to open, quickly blocking the bright lights out of my eyes with a hand to my forehead. I squinted as I waited for my eyes to re-adjust, feeling rather confused, the lights in my room had never been this bright before. My bleary eyes finally widened as I noticed an out of place computer that was certainly not mine, considering it was one that would normally be seen in office sitcoms set in the 90’s..

My head snapped from side to side of the office space in an attempt to get my bearings. As my eyes landed on a deciding factor of my situation I found my feet subconsciously taking a few steps backwards, my heels knocking into the back of the wheely chair which caused me to almost stumble down. I had just narrowly avoided falling back by catching myself with a decisive grip on the desk besides me. The fall inducing lettering continued to stare into my soul with its bright yellow coloring, if it wasn’t for its placement, then it would’ve held little to no significance. As it stood, the four hundred and twenty seven was the number of a man named Stanley, and showed me exactly where I had ended up.

The Stanley Parable. A hit game created and written by the developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh. A story about Stanley and the many paths he could take within these closed walls, but I was not Stanley. Taking a glance down at my hands, the world seemed to swirl around me as I made an awful discovery. My hands were no longer my own, they were distorted, twisted and utterly perverted from their original form. I snapped my head over to the computer rushing over and slamming my, well someone's hands, upon the desktop, the phone and stacked papers rattling at the impact. I stared desperately into the blank screen that only held a bright green blinking cursor, only to see a face filled with horror stare back at me, as I reached my hand out I saw the movement reflected back at me. My facial expression sank as the realization hit me like a sack of bricks. I was Stanley. 

I gasped softly backing up, a hand taking hold of the side of my skull as I struggled to comprehend the situation I found myself in. Logically this could all be chalked up to a dream, a nightmare, if not for the feeling of my head beneath my fingertips and the ragged breaths escaping from me at an uneven pace. Through rough breaths I glanced around for an out, a way to leave, an open door. The solution was found through an open door on my left which opened up to the familiar sight of the office’s of Stanley’s missing co-workers. As I gripped the door handle with Stanley’s hands, the cooling sensation of the knob rained down my veins, causing a shiver to run up my spine. I had never considered myself a coward per say, although this was certainly a time for a change. I thought as I slammed the door closed in front of me.

As Stanley’s hand still gripped the handle, I closed my eyes and considered my actions, I had just trapped myself into one of the quickest endings of the game. The so-called Coward ending. 

“But Stanley simply couldn’t handle the pressure.” The entirely recognizable voice rang out through the room. “What if he had to make a decision? What if a crucial outcome fell under his responsibility.” 

The same voice-lines that I originally looked up and down for within the original game came back to haunt me in some twisted form of wish fulfillment. I turned Stanley’s head up to the ceiling in hope of some acknowledgement, in hopes that maybe, I could be seen. 

“He had never been trained for that.” The voice unknowingly continued cruelly. “No, this couldn’t go anywhere except badly.” 

These words held a haunting reality that I may have to face within the coming moments, for truly, I had no idea of the potential outcomes of my actions. This could end up being the decision that causes my ultimate death. I shivered as fear crept up my spine as I realized the horrible decision I had just done. Locking myself in this room with no escape, no idea what would happen to me if the game reset. With everyone none the wiser of my current predicament. 

“The thing to do now, Stanley thought to himself, is to wait.” 

No, that’s the last thing I should be doing. 

“Nothing will hurt me.”

 I don’t know that.

 “Nothing will break me.” 

It already has.

“In here I can be happy, forever.” 

No! Can’t you see?

“I will be happy.”

I’m terrified...

“Stanley waited. Hours passed.” The voice rumbled against my silent pleas. 

I hurriedly ran around the room trying to find some way to prevent the inevitable outcome, slamming Stanley’s hands across the keyboard, trying to type something. Say something! But the keys did not respond, no letters showed up on the ever blinking monitor, feeling desperate I ran back over to the closed door. Roughly jiggling the doorknob beneath Stanley’s finger’s, silently saying sorry to Stanley, as I started to ram his shoulder into the door in a desperate attempt to make it budge. It didn’t even make a sound. 

“Then days.” A tingling sensation started to form at the back of my skull. “Had years gone by? He no longer had the ability to tell.” 

I felt dizzy as I stumbled the world shifting around my eyes, the world started blacking around the edges, as a pressure started pushing down on my chest. Has this room always been this dark? Am I going crazy? I tried to take in a lungful of breaths as breathing became harder and harder to accomplish. I felt my legs give out beneath me as I fell to the ground my hands slayed open upon the carpeted ground. 

“But the one thing he knew for sure, beyond any doubt, was that if he waited long enough, the answers would come.” 

Would they? I wanted to ask but no words would come out, I was just as mute as the original Stanley had been. I closed my eyes as another bout of dizziness overcame me, feeling my stomach churn at the sensation, my head limply sunk further towards my chest as the Narrator continued his spiel. 

“Eventually some day they would arrive.” The words reverberated around the tiny office space. “Soon, very soon now, this will end.” 

I felt my body shake in defiance trying to take one more stance, to not give up, to try and stop the ending. I slammed my rolled up fists upon the ground, opening up my mouth in a desperate attempt to scream, to make him realize that I was alive and suffering!... but the sounds never came as the words continued to flow around my brain. 

“He will be spoken to.” The words tore into my heart, speaking of my exact desires at this moment. To be seen, really seen, not as the body I had been shoved into… but as me. 

I felt my body collapse to the ground fully, curled up in the fetal position of pain, nausea, and fear. The last bits of energy spent in a desperate attempt to reach out to the man who was out of sight, who was just a voice; and yet, was my only hope at survival. 

“He will be told what to do.” The voice seemed to spit out, annoyance dripping off of every word. 

I begin to wonder what would’ve happened if I just followed, listened to the Narrator’s words, and his story to the true ending. I closed my eyes fiercely trying to fight back against those negative thoughts but they just kept coming like waves up against a tide. If I hadn’t been a coward and tried to get out of the story as soon as possible, would I be looking across the green pastures filled with trees and nature. 

“Now it’s just a little bit closer…” 

The brief silence was deafening, hearing the soft humming ambiance of the whirling machinery of the office. Unfortunately the only thing coming closer to me was my inevitable death, as I tried to suck in another breath, only to realize I was no longer gaining any oxygen. I wanted to panic, to try and fight, but I no longer had the energy to do so. Leaving my last conscious action to be the tears that poured from these eyes. 

“Now it’s even closer!” The Narrator spoke in an almost uncharacteristically excited tone. 

~~“Here it comes”~~

The End Is Never The End Is Never The----

[insidetheravensmind]

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠

Pairing ~ Minho x Reader Genre ~ smut, slightly fluff !!warnings!! fingering, eating out, dumbification, mean and sweet dom! Minho x sub reader. Reader struggles with school. Lots of touching and love but also a little filthy. Cockwarming, mention of cumming inside but doesn’t actually occur. I think that’s really all!  Word Count ~ 3,014 Author’s Note ~ Minho brain rot because I want him so bad Requested ~ No Check out my Stray Kids Masterlist Support me by buying me a coffee ☕️ Synopsis: You're struggling in class, and the only one who can help you is Lee Minho.

Just because high school was over doesn’t mean that needing help didn’t exist. University is way different, but when your brain can't comprehend a problem, then you can’t help but ask for help. You knew asking the professor would be pointless because he hadn’t helped countless times before, so when you looked over to a boy that seemed to have an idea, you thought you’d ask him.

“Hey, excuse me,” You started.

He turned to face you. The boy wore a beanie that covered his hair, and he had a slim face; his lips were gorgeously pink and plump. His eyes were catlike with the way they changed shapes when his facial expression changed, and he wore clear square glasses to see. 

“Hello, what is it?” He asked in a neutral, but confused tone. 

“Do you think you could help me with this assignment? I can’t get used to it.” You asked.

He smiled at you. “I’d be glad to. How about you come over to my place after class?”

“That sounds great, thank you… uh… what’s your name?” You asked.

He smirked. “Minho.” 

“I’m Y/N.”

A little bit later when your class finished, you gathered your things and followed Minho back to his place. As you arrived and walked inside, Minho spoke.

“My roommate isn’t here, so you don’t gotta worry about anyone being around.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you.” 

“Let’s get this started.”

Two questions later, and you still couldn’t get the hang of it. But you couldn’t blame yourself. Before the both of you started working, he changed. He took off his beanie and put on a form fitting black t-shirt as well as black sweatpants that hugged him nicely. He was no longer wearing his glasses, and his hair was roughed up, looking messy. He was really a sight to see.

You were lost in a trance, staring at his hands and the way he wrote on the piece of paper. They looked so nice, so inviting, so fucking delicious. “Y/N, are you getting it yet or not?” He quizzed, snapping you out as his head turned towards you. “You’re not even paying attention.” 

“Yes I am!” You argued. You knew you were lying. But he didn’t need to know what you were thinking. 

“Don’t lie to me.” He said harshly, his hand moving to your thigh. 

The placement of his hand startled you, but you didn’t dare move it away. It sent shivers down your spine and signals to your core that you wanted Minho to fuck you right there. 

Looking away from him, quietly, you spoke in your natural submissive state, “I’m not lying to you.” You were always so quick to submit in situations like these. It’s just who you were.

“Oh, Y/N, I know you were struggling, but this simply won’t do.” He turned his body towards you, moving his hand up your thigh while the other lifted to grab your chin, making you look at him. 

“Come here, I’m gonna make you pay attention.”

He lifted you up from your chair and made you straddle his thigh, facing towards the desk with the homework splattered over it. His arm reached around you, with a pencil, moving towards the paper.

“Okay, as I was saying…” Minho continued.

But it didn’t matter. Being on his thigh was making it much worse. All you could think about was him fucking you. 

While he was demonstrating another example problem, he began to move his leg up and down, specifically the leg you were sitting on. Even though it made no contact with your clit, the mere slight thrust made you let out a quick but loud moan. 

You froze. You tried to act like nothing happened. But Minho didn’t seem to notice? He just kept going. Kept demonstrating. So you stayed there. Acting like nothing happened. But then it happened again. This time Minho put his pencil down. You tried to ignore it again, but he picked you up and placed you next to him. He didn’t say a word, so you just sat there. 

He returned and sat back down in his chair. He put you back in the position you were before. The same as before. You were confused. What was happening? 

“Y/N, close your eyes.” You did as you were told. “I’m gonna see if you can envision this question in your head. Okay?” You nodded. “Okay.”

“So,” Minho started. His hands moved to snake around your body. “Let’s say that…” his hand moved down your thigh, creeping into your crotch. “That I move this hand down here.” You gulped. “Minho, I thought that, I thought that I was gonna envision the problem.” You said, voice shaking. “Oh, you are. Just trust me.” You nodded again.

“As I was saying before. If I move my hand down there, and I move it around this area,” he circles his hand around your clit area. “That makes you react positively to it, correct?” You nodded. “Mhmm.”

“Okay, so if the problem you’re having is down here, then why are we focused on what’s on this paper?” He asked.

You went to move to explain yourself, but he kept you in place. “No, no, I know you WERE struggling with the paper, but that’s not the issue anymore. The issue is that you’re just a little too horny to focus on anything but me.” You gasped. “Minho- I swear that’s not-“ 

“I said I didn’t like liars.”

You kept stuttering over your words trying to explain yourself while his hands traveled into the waistband of your pants and panties. You moaned as his soft hand made bare contact with your pulsing wet clit. He began to mess with it, slightly tapping it with one finger to see you jump when he hit just the right spot. 

“Minho - please - I can’t.” You tried to beg.

“But I think you can.” 

He removed his hand from your pants and placed you next to him again. He stood up and grabbed you, throwing you over shoulder in the process. 

“Wait, wait, stop, I might hurt you!” You tried to warn.

His response was a harsh slap on the ass.

You moaned.

Spanking always got you going. 

He threw you onto his bed. Grabbing your hips and turning you on your stomach. He moved your hips to be facing up with your head pushed down into the mattress. 

“Arch your back, baby.” He growled.

You obeyed.

You didn’t know this would happen, but you weren’t complaining. Two sexually frustrated college kids would be willing to fuck anything they could.

Minho grabbed your waistbands again and pulled them off, exposing your entire region to air, to his sight. What he saw was your pulsing clit, your juices spread so beautifully and in the light that they glimmered. His eyes lit up. 

“Fuck, that’s hot.”

He moved his hand to your clit, gently massaging it in circles. 

“Mi-minho, f-fuck!” You moaned as he continued to explore you with his other hand. 

“That feel good?” He asked, focused on your clit.

“Yes, fuck, it does.” He smirked to himself while slowly coming to a stop. You moaned into the bed, body calming from the quick rise of action, upset that he stops, but refusing to whine about it. His hands ghosted their way from your hips to your ass and then down your thighs, softly caressing them. You shivered even though you were hot to the touch. 

Minho grabbed your hips and turned you over onto your back. He pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his toned, strong body. You bit your lip, rubbing your thighs together to create fiction, and quietly moaned as he threw his shirt across the room into a laundry basket. 

He grabbed your thighs and pulled you to him, legs instinctively wrapping around his torso. He grabbed the hem of your shirt and pulled it over your head. Then he reached around and unclipped your bra. He stared at your tits, biting his lip at how soft they looked. He reached down and lightly pinched your nipples which caused you to moan loudly at the contact. He smirked again, watching your reactions only turned him on more. 

“Baby, you’re so pretty to watch. I could stare at you all day, love the way you react to my touch.” He said, eyeing you from the top of your head to as low as he could see from his position.

He was standing at the end of the bed with you in front of him, his clothed crotch touching your wet cunt as your breathing increased with each passing moment and his eyes only wandered over each part of you, breathing you in.

“Minho, please, I need you.” You said, lightly pulling him into you. 

“I know, darling.”

He grabbed your ankles and removed your legs from his waist. He took a step back, eyeing your pulsing wet area from lack of touch. His eyes were glazed over at such a sight caused by him. He brought his hand up to it, exploring it again with more intensity. He only touched you with one finger, knowing the lack of attention made it hypersensitive. Your breathing hitched, and your body jerked anytime his finger made any sort of contact. 

Softly his long, slender finger entered your hole. You felt full solely from that, satisfied that you finally had relief there. He moved it in and out and slowly with a steady rhythm, kneeling down and staring at his movements, occasionally looking at your body and face from above.

You looked heavenly, the way you took what he gave you with no complaints. Enjoying every piece of him that he gave you. 

He reached his other hand to lay on the pouch that rested just above your clit, bringing his thumb to gently rub your soft clit.

You were in heaven, in bliss, moving your body to match his light thrusts. He added a second finger, filling you up more, stretching you slightly. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but you adjusted due to his soft nature.

He began going faster after a bit, but his thumb moved at the same pace. You had never felt this way before, such focus on your pleasure alone, as well as speeding up the thrust but keeping pleasurable rubs on your clit. You didn’t know sexual intimacy could feel so wonderful.

“Minho, that feels really nice.” You say as your head rolls around on the bed, body feeling like it was floating and your head starting to soar into the clouds.

“I’m glad, baby.” He says with a smile.

You feel a knot in your body tighten, tension building ready for release at any point. Your breathing was heavy, your body was hotter than ever, and you began to move your body more.

Minho knew you were close, so he increased his pace. You moved to lean on your forearms, pushing your body off the bed, and looking down at the sight. He stared back at you, glazey eyes looking deeply into your eyes, almost like he was trying to stare you back into the bed, back into your submissive headspace.

You let out a loud moan and collapsed back on the bed as his thumb on your clit increased its speed. He smiled, letting out a breath that sounded like a small victory laugh. 

Minho removed his thumb from your clit and replaced it with his mouth. Your breath caught in your throat, eyes rolling back into your head as he sucked on your clit finally allowing the knot in your stomach to untie itself. Your hands grabbed onto his head as you moved your pussy in sync with him, trying to ride out this feeling that had never felt so amazing. He focused on you, continuing even after you settled back into the bed, making sure you were fully finished before pulling back. 

Minho stood back up, looking down at your figure. You felt so small below him, no matter the difference in figures, you never felt so tiny before. He traced his fingers down your stomach, admiring your beauty from his place.

“Would you like to continue, Y/N?” He asked softly, eyes still wandering over your body. Your name sounded like music the way he said it, so full of care and tenderness. 

“Yes, Minho, I want more of you.”

He nodded gently.

“Then more of me you will get.”

He walked over to his dresser and pulled out a condom from one of the drawers. He walked back over to you and pulled your legs apart. You stared at him while he pulled his sweatpants and underwear down and off. He opened the condom and slid it over his dick.

Minho leaned down and softly caressed your cheek. His dick brushed against you, making you jolt at the idea that he’d be inside you soon. 

“Are you ready, doll?”

“Yes, Minho.”

He grabbed his dick and began to guide it into your entrance. You moaned at the feeling, starting to be filled was the only thing that could make the burning desire to be fucked by him stop.

“F-fuck! Minho!” You moaned, scratching at his back as he slid in slowly. It took a second before he bottomed out inside you, and when he did, he stayed there for a moment. He found comfort in the warmth, and you found comfort in the fullness. Both of your breaths were unsteady, heavy, and hot. So many feelings, so much satisfaction.

Eventually he grew impatient. He had to move. He kept himself up by his arms, using his hips to slide in and out of you. He didn’t just push in and out of you like everyone else did, he thrusted with his hips properly. It actually felt like there was a rhythm, and there was, and he was hitting every pleasurable spot he could with his skin making contact with your clit every time he thrusted in.

“Baby, you feel so fucking nice. God I fucking love this feeling.” He moaned as his pace quickened.

You groaned. “Min, you have no fucking idea how good this feels!” You arch your back when he snaps back in as he thrusts harshly. “I think I do, baby.” 

He changed his stance. He fully pulled out of you, brought you close to the edge of the bed and grabbed a pillow near you. 

“Lift your torso.” He said. You do as he commanded.

He placed the pillow underneath you, and you relaxed into it. Your crotch was elevated, and he slid back in.

He started to go at a rough fast pace, but somehow it still had rhythm. He was going feral, but he still had technique. You didn’t think it was possible.

He was fucking you stupid. You couldn’t form coherent words or sentences, they were just noises leaving your mouth every time he snapped his hips back into you, and it got even worse when he began to rub your clit again.

“You think you understand the problem yet? Envision it? Are you still-“ Minho almost breaks you when he thrusts into you and stills for a moment. 

“Struggling?”

You moan and he starts back up. The knot in your is retying itself, and he can feel himself getting closer too, ready for his cum to start shooting into the condom. However, with how nice this is, he just wants to cum in you and fill you up. 

He smirks at you when he sees the way your eyes roll back into your head with lack of thought. 

“I’d ask if you wanted to go back to studying, but I think you’re even dumber than when we started.” You only groaned at his words. He was loving a moment ago, and now he’s degrading you.

And fuck, you loved it. 

You couldn’t hold it much longer, you just allowed your body relax and convulse while you climaxed while Minho fucked you. The feeling of your climax sent Minho over the edge and he came too, filling the condom with cum, but fucking you until both yoy and him were fully finished. 

When you both calmed, he stilled in you again, waiting for a moment before pulling out.

He removed the condom, tied the top, and threw it in the trash can. He got on the bed and pulled you close. After a bit he asked, “Wanna try to study now that the real problem is out of the way?”

“Yes, I’d love to try.”

He helped you stand up, but held your hand and walked you over to his desk, not bothering to have either of you put your clothes back on. 

“Stand in front of my desk.” He commanded.

You stood in the place he told you, and he grabbed his chair and sat in it. His cock was erect again from staring at your naked body. 

He grabbed your hips and pulled you onto him, placing you back onto his dick.

“Min-minho! Full!” You yelled, still too dumb to form a proper sentence.

“It’s okay, baby, let’s see if you continue to struggle now.” 

He pulled the chair into his desk and grabbed a pencil, pearling over you while you struggled to sit still.

“Alright where were we?” 

“Uhhh, I don’t, I don’t remember.” You said honestly.

“Of course you wouldn’t, you’re just a dumb little slut.” You felt more wetness pool, and Minho felt it too. 

“Hmmm, so you struggle when I’m not inside you and you struggle when I am inside you. I’m starting to think all you’re useful for is being fucked.”

You had no idea where all this was coming from, but you weren’t complaining. You were more than turned on.

“I’m just gonna keep you on my dick for as long as I please, unless you have a problem?”

You shook your head. “No, no, I don’t, Minho.”

He caressed your sides softly.

“I thought so. I think I enjoy seeing you struggle.”

[boyrobott]

i saw the future unfold in silver and gold

Professor Ochanomizu has some things to discuss with Dr. Tenma.

Read on AO3.

Dr. Tenma,

I'm so sorry you have to hear this news through a letter, but I can't seem to get in contact with you over the phone, and you weren't home when I dropped in last week. The press is expecting a public announcement from me any day now regarding this situation, and I don't believe it's right or fair for you to have to find out about this in such an impersonal way, so I suppose this will have to do.

Your robot son, Tobio, recently reemerged after nearly a year of absence, and I'm pleased to say that he is healthy, safe, and well-adjusted — remarkably so, in fact, considering his circumstances. He was in the United States, working as a performer for a popular American circus, but he wished to quit his role there, so I have taken him back to Japan with me instead, and I intend to ensure he has a proper childhood from now on. His upbringing so far has been… unorthodox, to say the absolute least.

However, we are still debating the subject of the boy's permanent placement. Until more suitable arrangements can be made, I have been acting as temporary guardian for him, and while I'm more than willing to continue fostering him indefinitely, I understand that you, as his father, have the strongest potential claim to him if you wish to exercise your parental rights, and I will not contest it if you choose to do this. My only wish is to see the boy receive the stable, loving home he deserves.

You should also know, to avoid any possible confusion in the future, that your son has decided to change his name to "Astro", and is no longer comfortable with any references to his previous name. Please keep this in mind should you choose to pay him a visit.

All the best,

Ochanomizu Hiroshi

Dr. Tenma,

I'm sorry to disturb you again so soon. I understand all of this must be quite surprising for you, and I certainly do not wish to overwhelm you, but as you haven't come forward to seize custody of your son just yet, he remains in my care for the foreseeable future. Of course, I'm perfectly happy to bear the bulk of parental responsibilities for as long as I must, but it has come to my attention that Astro needs further education than the few years he has received so far, and I do not believe it would be just to exclude you from the decision when you have such an important role in his life.

With the recent declarations of fundamental rights and liberties for robots all over the country, I've been considering the possibility of enrolling Astro in the local primary school, but he tells me that you tutored him privately within your own home for the majority of his life until the circus picked him up. It is my personal impression that he would flourish in a more social environment (he is an extremely extroverted child, as I'm sure you already know) but if you wish for him to receive a more independent form of education, I'm certain we can reach a healthy compromise that suits his temperament.

Please do try and respond to me as soon as you can. The window for enrollment is closing soon, and I will not allow the boy to miss yet another year of schooling.

All the best,

Ochanomizu Hiroshi

Dr. Tenma,

I suppose I'm beginning to sound a bit like a broken record at this point, and I do apologize for that, but as you have still not returned any of my calls or responded to my previous letters, I would simply like to remind you that your son is still residing in my home at the current moment, and you have given me no indication whether you would like to reclaim custody over him or not.

I understand this must be quite difficult for you to process, and it is absolutely not my intention to force you into a decision you aren't ready to make. However, now that Astro is attending primary school, and interacting with his peers on a more regular basis, he has been having some trouble understanding why the other children have a mother and a father to care for them and love them while he has no parents at all. It breaks my heart to see him like this. The boy is hurting, and I cannot help him. I cannot give him what he needs. I suppose it was only the foolish fancy of an old man to ever believe that I could.

The child needs his parents, Umataro. The child needs you. Please don't let him down.

Hiroshi

Dr. Tenma,

Well, your silence is certainly speaking for itself, and I suppose that was your intention all along. Perhaps I was an old fool, believing I could convince you to reconnect with your son when the two of you have been separated far longer than you haven't. I can see you have no interest in any further contact with him, and you clearly won't be changing your mind on this anytime soon. I assure you, I won't trouble you on this matter again.

But I don't think you fully understand what you're giving up. Astro is a truly wonderful, wonderful boy — he's kind and gentle, and always so eager to lend a hand. No matter the situation, he always drops everything to rush to the rescue when the city calls on him, and he is so genuinely happy to help. He has the most selfless soul I've ever seen. He's strong, and brave, and so bright. I couldn't be any prouder of him than if he was my own son. He is the greatest gift that life has ever given me, and every day, I thank heaven for the privilege to know him as I do. I never could have imagined such a blessing as his presence in my home.

He will be going away from me very soon. He will have a proper family from now on, with two parents, just like the other children, and he will have no further need of me. Nonetheless, I cherish every moment I have spent with him, and I wouldn't change a thing. I am saddened for you, that you will never know this incredible boy you created.

I see so much of you in him.

All the best,

Ochanomizu Hiroshi

[doodle17]

Five Nights at Freddy's Re-imagined

DISCLAIMER

This wasn't made to "make a better fnaf" or that the original was bad. The original games will always hold a very special place in my heart, and I really appreciate Scott and the characters and world he's created for us.

That being said, I never liked the Fnaf lore when it started to get more sci-fi than horror. I don't like the confusing tineline and overall, a lot of stuff just feels unnecessary to me. So, I've made this AU to be a re-write on how I see Fnaf. The lore is simple, there is no such thing as remnant, or anything like that, at least not at this point of the writing process (but don't get your hopes up)

The storyline and lore for this au are bound to go through multiple different changes, possibly with different releases of future movies, or if there's certain things I missed that I want to add. This whole thing is still really new, and it's definitely going to get changed quite a bit as it goes on.

Now without further a-do, let's get into the details.

Timeline: Fnaf 4, Fnaf 1, Fnaf 2, Fnaf 3 (SL time placement still being decided)

Schmidt Family (taking the role of the Emily's)

Mike Schmidt (oldest sibling)

Abby Schmidt (youngest sibling)

Garrett Schmidt(middle sibling, posseses the Puppet)

Mama Schmidt(unnamed for now, deceased)

Henry Schmidt (deceased)

Afton Family

William Afton(deceased???)

Mama Afton (unamed, divorced after the bite)

Vanessa Afton (oldest sibling)

Crying child/Cass (second youngest sibling, deceased, posesses GF)

Micheal Afton (middle sibling, lives with mom after the bite (which he caused), cut contact with the rest of the family after. Named after Henry's son, Mike, by William. Hinting at possible jealousy)

Elizabeth Afton (Youngest sibling, Williams step daughter from his second marriage before her biological mother died)

Storyline (for now)

In the early 80's, William and Henry think of the idea for a Pizzeria chain. Henry's family knows little to nothing about it, as Henry wants it to be a surprise for his son, Mike. While the idea is in pre-production, Garrett is born and it is at this point Henry is started to reconsider the idea. To spend more time with his family, he decides to quit and leave it to William. William dislikes this, a LOT. He never was right in the head, and this was the thing that pushed him over the edge, and he tracks down, kidnaps and kills Garrett.The Pizzeria opens in '85, debuting the newest animatronics known as Fredbear and Spring-Bonnie. Only after two years a terrible accident occurs and it involves Aftons kids. Micheal Afton accidentally harms his brother, causing the infamous bite of '87. After said incident, William didnt want his Pizzeria to associated with said accident, and has the two animatronics replaced almost immediately after to give the place a brand new label and brand. Cass (who I'll refer to with that name until any other name is confirmed) is fatally injured, and has hallucinations, resulting in fnaf 4. Cass succumbs to his injuries and dies around a week later. He posseses the Fredbear Animatronic.Despite the death of his youngest child, William is instead rather fascinated with how a machine he created for entertainment could do so much damage, and then proceeds to think of the many capabilities of his robots. This leads to him creating multiple animatronics, which just end up collecting dust in a back room, but end up helping him with figuring out what he can add to the main 4 he uses now.Later on for unknown/possible self indulgent reasons, he kills 4 kids, ranging from 8-12 years old, with the help of his daughter Vanessa to cover his tracks. He hides the bodies of each child in one of his animatronics until he can take them out to properly dispose of them. He eventually forgets though, and this is when the complaints for the animatronics movements and smell start coming, and the children now possess the animatronics.

This is when fnaf 1 will take place, which is around the late 80s-early 90s. It is a mixture of fnaf 1 game plot, and the fnaf movie. Mike gets a shift as the night guard while the pizzeria is still open, but it's starting to go downhill at this point, and is on the verge of closing its doors soon. The plot with Mike and his family stays somewhat the same as the movie, with slight changes to fit with the plot of the game. William is springlocked, the pizzeria is destroyed and the authorities decide this is the time to lock the place up and bulldoze it.

Before it can be fully destroyed, some investors feeling nostalgic decide to re-open Freddy Fabears pizza with brand new and shiny animatronics. The whole place is fixed, remodeled and given a shiny new coat of paint and neon, around the early to mid 90s. The main 4, Springtrap, and a few of the empty suits that survived are put in a new backroom for parts. When the main 4 aren't fitting to well with the new setting, they are scrapped for their good parts and left in the back, and are then replaced with the Toy animatronics. We follow Jeremy Fitzgerald as he works his night shift and encounters the many animatronics. When he goes home at night he sees things in his sleep, which are more realistic/ non-8bit reenactments of the secret minigames. These are from Garrett trying to warn him. Later on Jeremy is trying to stop Mike and Vanessa from getting the place shut down. They try to explain to him why, and that if it doesn't shut down soon, people are going to get hurt or worse. It eventually all goes to hell when a certain old friend of ours finds a way out of the backrooms and kills an employee, and messes with the new animatronics, causing them to become extremely aggressive with guests. Luckily, they manage to shut the place down, and William is locked up once again.

I'm still trying to figure out what could be happening with Fnaf 3, but I'll try my best here. The Pizzeria is reopened in mid to late 90s, almost the 2000s. This time as a walk-in attraction/haunted house. It doesn't need much remodeling to make it have the haunted/ run down look, so very few changes are added to the pizzeria. Abby is getting visited by Garrett/Puppet, saying he needs her help to free her friends and him. She later on she encounters Micheal Afton who works at a gas station that is on the way to her walk from school. It is later revealed that he has also been visited by his brother, Cass/GF. Unlike Abby though, he is to afraid to go back to the pizzeria because that day still haunts him. Abby tells Vanessa and Vanessa decides to help her. Van works as the nightguard, and sneaks Abby in every night. Abby helps the kids similar to how you help them in the third game ( the minigames) and it is later revealed that William still isn't dead and is hunting down Abby. Abby is hurt and is sent to the hospital, which makes Mike very upset with Van. She tells him what's going on and they decide its time to finish this. They try to burn down the pizzeria, but have to fight William to do so. No matter how hard they try he seems unstoppable. Micheal shows up and tells them to get out, and that he'll give up his life to keep his dad inside and burn the place down. Once the match is lit, Mike gets to see Garrett one last time and Van sees Cass, and he and Van escape as the Pizzeria is then engulfed in flames.Micheal and William are both presumed dead. Micheal finally gets the closure with his little brother, and he and all the souls (minus William, hes going to a less better place) are freed for good.

Thats all for now! Once again, the stories are probably gonna get updated a lot while I figure some more stuff out. I'll definitely doodle up some designs! Maybe...

I also should probably mention that this is techbically an AU, so characters designs will be a little different. They'll also have my own headcanons with them.

If you guys have any ideas on characters, or storylines or anything, please let me know!

[hopeymchope]

I'm finally playing Another Code Recollection!

I started it a week ago, and I just finished the "Two Memories" section. As a longtime fan of Ashley/CING/Another Code, I have THOUGHTS.

It honestly bothers me more than it should that there's no separation, really, between the first and second game. You don't go back to the title screen. You don't get some credits or anything. You complete the first game's story, and then it just says "Two Memories" "The End" and then the second game's story IMMEDIATELY BEGINS. You go straight from the big climax of one story into the lazy-days opening of another adventure, and it's JARRING. It's not a good idea. They should've had a pause, had you maybe be able to select the second game from a title screen option? Instead it's just all... one game now. And that feels WRONG to me.

It's cool we're all united under calling the device "Another" and calling her Ashley Mizuki Robins now. In the old days, her name was "Robbins" in North America and "Robins" in Europe. The device was "Trace" in America and "Another" in Europe. The original DS game even had two different translations for basically ALL the same dialogue. It was weird how you could play two English translations that conveyed the same info in distinct ways. But now, at last, UNITY! Every region will know her as Ashley Mizuki Robins, and everyone will call the machine her dad worked on the "Another." YAY.

I feel like this puzzle has stuck in the minds of those who played the original FOREVER.

3. Let's face it: None of the puzzles in this remake are remotely as clever as the ones in the original games. The way "Two Memories" made use of the DS' distinct form and "A Journey into Lost Memories" made use of the Wii Remote were SO damn creative, and that was a big part of what made the games have such an impact on the relative few who played them. With "Recollection," we still get the characters and stories we love, but losing that kind of outside-the-box puzzle design kinda DOES suck. These aren't making any particular special use of the Switch's design or innate gimmicks. They're just... regular ol' adventure game puzzles. (Though I'm at least grateful I didn't have to do that damned slide puzzle again... fuck do I hate slide puzzles.)

4. Ashley's outfits are redesigned in both games. And while I think she looks great across the board, I also think they did a much better job of retaining the basic visual design of her "Two Memories" look as compared to how they reminaged her "Journey into Lost Memories" look.

Above: The original Ashley designs from the DS and Wii games. Below: The new ones from the Switch collection.

In both cases, Ashley loses the midriff and the dangling strap/chain thing. No big losses imo; in fact, I think the use of a plaid flannel in her new "R" design invokes '90s grunge fashion in the same way that chain/strap did, so it's a pretty functional swap. Also, her old wrist cuff/band things only appear (recolored) on her new "R" outfit, but I don't think anyone felt emotionally attached to those. Overall, the "Two Memories" outfit keeps the same color scheme/placement while changing over to a hoodie that feels/looks really good. But even with the flannel doing some thematic work for the "R" redesign, they largely went in a totally different direction from the original. Ashley's new outfit looks very... uh, confused? Like, she's wearing some fairly short shorts plus a plaid flannel long-sleeve over another shirt; Is it hot or is it cold, girl? Make up your damn MIND.

5. It's really interesting to see how the story's been rewritten so far. Richard and Bill's first appearances are both handled BETTER in the remake, I think; I think that in the original "Two Memories," Bill was overly standoffish for what he was trying to do, and Ashley was just WAY too skeptical when first meeting Richard. Both these issues are corrected now. There's also a much clearer link between the original and the sequel, and I'm less sure about that decision. The original game was an open-and-shut case to the point that "R" had to work backwards to be like "Oh, but there's ANOTHER layer to the mystery." Now the other layer is plainly present from the jump, but it also kinda makes Ashley look... dumber? Like, she literally sees the name "J.C. Valley" doing MAJOR SKETCHY SHIT at the end of "Two Memories" during one of the most eventful/memorable days of her life, and then her dad goes to work at "J.C. Valley" in the sequel, and somehow she NEVER MAKES THE CONNECTION. (At least she hasn't yet in my game.) I guess that was a pretty overwhelming day? But still...

6. The combination of Ashley's old and new outfits would make excellent alternate appearances for Ashley in Smash Bros. I've been championing getting her in Smash for YEARS. Is she an unlikely candidate? Of course, but many candidates who are just as unlikely (if not MORE) are already in the thing! Being a trophy in Smash Bros. Brawl is NOT ENOUGh. So right now, I'm in the process of altering my mental moveset for her to account for the new things she does in this game. I think we can definitely make her viable. Maybe I'll make a post about how I imagine her moves in the future. :P

[wellthebardsdead]

Clockwork Heart pt4

Part 3 here

———

Wyrm: *whimpering softly and holding onto Ancanos arm trying to pull him away from his mouth so he can scream for his father. Utterly helpless as the high elf easily man handles the younger mer back into his bedroom, locking and warding the door with ease before forcing him into the chair by his desk* Right then, you’re going to sit there and we’re going to tal-

Wyrm: *tries to scream and gets his glove back over his mouth again, now looking up at him as he starts to cry, visibly afraid and upset, shocked that someone would assault him like this in his own home no less* m-mmph-

Ancano: Oh dear, shhh don’t cry now. I’m sorry I frightened you, but you haven’t been the most, open, to talking to me. So I figured perhaps a fair exchange would change your mind~ *holds up the gauntlets placing them on the young mers desk* You, get these. And in exchange, you talk to me, whenever, and wherever I want to talk. Deal~? *removes his hand*

Wyrm: *still frightened as he stares up at the much larger and physically stronger elf, but strangely calms down as he looks at the gauntlets, like a memory he can’t quite place has distracted his mind* j-just talk?…th-thats it?

Ancano: *suddenly takes his chin in his hand, making him turn his head and look at him* speak up, let me hear you…

Wyrm: *face flushing as fear begins to give way to confusion and a sudden shyness overcomes him* I-I- *tries to look away but can’t, the high elfs now seemingly charming presence too close to escape* y-you j-just want me to talk to y-you? And y-you’ll give me them? *closes his eyes tight, little tears pricking at the corner of his living one*

Ancano: my, what happened to that snappy little prince I spoke to a few days ago~ *gently thumbs the droplet away, swearing it had almost a rainbow sheen against his skin as he did so, like an oil slick over water*

Wyrm: *sniffles and pouts pulling away a little* th-that ‘snappy little prince’ w-wasn’t rudely awoken before sunrise and a-a-ac-c-costed in his own h-home b-before being man handled and cornered like a chi- child… *goes quiet as Ancano locks eyes with him again, his hand sliding up his cheek making him stare back at him*

Ancano: *smiles down at him, gently stroking his skin with his thumb as he takes in his features. The soft freckles on his nose, the slightly pink tint to his dark grey lips and cheeks, how his hair drapes over his quite literally delicate, and weak frame… How his sleeve slides off where his missing shoulder should be, showing off his swan like neck ever so slightly… and of course, his enchanted and enchanting Pearl eye… he was as beautiful as he was interesting. An enigma amongst all in skyrim… But ultimately he was still just a young, and naive elf. While nearing his 86th year to his naming day, he was mentally only a teenager in his 18th year by dunmeri standards. Young, coddled, careless, and easy to manipulate* I take it that’s a no, to my trade offer then?…

Wyrm: *so transfixed by his gaze and touch he didn’t even realise he’d spoken for a moment* I- what?… *looks at the gauntlets and audibly gasps as ancano turns his face back to his* I- I didn’t say no I just-

Ancano: *leans down slightly getting in closer to his face* need a bit more convincing?

Wyrm: f-for how long u-until the exchange is complete?…

Ancano: *smirks a little, holding back from his plan to kiss him immediately and overwhelm his poor little brain by overriding his emotions* Smart little Pearl aren’t you~? It seems nobody can get one over on you. Hmm… *lets him go and stands up fixing his posture as he adjusts his gloves* until my placement here is complete. They were rather expensive after all but, when I noticed how upset you were leaving Enthirs quarters, I felt it’d be worth the investment to make you smile again~

Wyrm: *visibly blushing at the compliment to his intelligence, falling for it easily and yet still skeptical about his wants to see him smile* see me smile again?…

Ancano: of course. You may only scowl when you see me, but I’ve seen you smile from afar plenty. I thought perhaps these might change that. It’s my job to ensure I interview everyone here for my reports and well. No judgment of course to the other occupants of this collage but, you are the most fascinating person within these walls. And I think it’ll take me quite a bit of time to get to know you~ so I felt these might help sway you a little.

Wyrm: *looks up at him then back at the gauntlets, just wanting to have them so badly and having no idea why* j-just talking. N-nothing else. *huffs* and n-no more scaring me like that! *pouts hugging his side*

Ancano: *chuckles and holds out his hand to him* I promise, so, we have a deal then~?

Wyrm: … *looks at the gloves one more time, then his hand before nervously taking it* deal…

Ancano: *smirks* Splendid. *brings his hand up to his lips giving it a soft kiss* I suppose I should leave before your father wakes. I doubt he’d be pleased seeing me in your room, alone, with you~ *winks playfully at him as he releases his hand from his grasp before walking to the door* I’ll come find you later on, little prince. *smiles and disarms the ward before stepping from the room, leaving the Pearl of the sea of ghosts sitting there, flustered and so confused*

Wyrm: *just staring at the door in silence, trying to process what just happened and not knowing what to think* … *looks to his newly acquired gauntlets, the want to put them on still there, but his mind now too occupied remembering the high elfs hands on him* … *gets up and walks to his bed, just flopping down onto it and hugging his pillow as he curls up into a ball, hiding his face*