#the rest are mostly background characters youre not missing anything too important

[radioactive-dazey]

The Kiss

A scene from one of my fics that I may end up scrapping, it was a Prince and the Frog au inspired by the original story. Janus was supposed to be the main character with the twins, logan, and virgil having their own side stories going on. And I think we can all guess who the frog was going to be. (I just have no idea how to fully tackle this idea, but I had this chapter written out for ages and don't want to let it go to waste.)

Important context: Prince Logan is visiting a neighboring kingdom for his older brother Virgil's marriage to Prince Janus. Logan has beef with Prince Janus's younger siblings, Princes Roman and Remus.

To celebrate the marriage, the kingdom is hosting a masquerade ball. Logan attends but stays mostly in the background, and a mysterious stranger grabs his attention.

Pairings: Logince, implied Dukexiety.

CW: Uh technically underaged drinking?? I guess?? Mild swearing? I dont know what counts anymore, if I miss anything major let me know!

Logan watched as Virgil and Janus waltzed across the dancefloor, momentarily adjusting his mask. Roman wasn't anywhere in sight, a fact that Logan was grateful for. He grabbed a glass from the buffet table and took a sip. The drink was bitter in his mouth and he had to choke it down. 

Someone chuckled. "Should you be drinking that?" 

Logan turned. A boy stood on the other side of the buffet table, his arms resting behind his back. Logan didn't need his glasses to know the stranger was handsome. It took him a moment to recognise the blobs of red that leaped off the boy's dress were actually sparkling butterflies. A large silver butterfly wing popped off his mask, red costume diamonds and painted shapes detailing it. Logan was star struck, swirling his glass in his hand before suddenly realizing he was staring. 

"The drinking age is nineteen here, isn't it?" 

"No, it's twenty-one. You're a foreigner?" The stranger's voice was melodic. It made Logan feel warm inside, an unfamiliar sensation filling his chest. He stuttered out a few syllables, suddenly overwhelmed with the way his body was reacting and he tried to smother the feeling. 

"I- Yes, I am. I'm Pr-" 

"Don't tell me your name," the stranger interrupted, waving his hands out as if to stop Logan. "I don't want to know." 

Logan's eyebrow quirked up. "Can I know yours?" 

"No!" He blurted out, and the man's face flushed. "It would be better for the both of us, trust me."

Logan nodded in vague understanding. "I will," he stated, deciding at that moment it wasn't worth trying to pretend he enjoyed his drink. He placed it on a passing servant's tray, his full attention back onto the man in front of him. 

"Are you enjoying the party?" 

"No," he sighed, gently brushing away the strands of hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. "I was… Encouraged to be present, but frankly I'm trying to avoid someone. There's a million other places I would rather hide at than in a crowded ballroom."

Logan nodded. "I know the feeling. I'm trying to avoid someone as well. I've never been very fond of parties, there's far too many people present and pretending to enjoy their company is exhausting. Not that I don't enjoy yours!" He added the last part quickly, smiling sheepishly. "You may be one of the few pleasant people I've met in this kingdom."

The stranger smiled, and Logan's heart did backflips. 

"Thank you, that's kind of you to say." 

They grew quiet. Logan resisted the urge to ask the stranger to dance. He was a terrible dancer. But still, he didn't want the conversation to die out. 

"Do you want to leave?" 

Logan's head shot up. "Excuse me?" 

"Do you want to leave? The party? I know of an exit that will take us to the gardens." 

Logan smiled and walked around the table, offering his arm for the stranger to take. "Lead the way." 

They stepped out of the ballroom together, Logan struggling to keep pace with the boy as he guided him through the halls. The stranger's heels clicked loudly on the tile and Logan wondered how he could be so quick. He swallowed nervously and fiddled with the buttons on his coat. 

"So, tell me," the stranger began, and Logan was once again entranced by his voice. "Who were you trying to avoid?" 

Logan sighed. "Some boy. He is the most infuriating person I have ever met." 

"How so?" 

"He's very arrogant," Logan started, stumbling slightly. "I've only just met him, but he behaves like I've done something horrible to him." 

"Well, have you?" 

Logan scoffed. "If I did, I wouldn't have the slightest idea what it would be. From the moment I arrived he's behaved as if I spit on him. Unfortunate, really. I had hoped we could have gotten along." 

"He's not worth your time, my dear. Someone as handsome as yourself shouldn't dote after foolish men."

Logan chuckled and stood slightly taller, the mask feeling oddly cool against his warming face. "Handsome?" 

"Truely, has no one told you that before?" The beautiful stranger stepped in front of him, and wow was Logan entranced again. Despite the dim halls, Logan could make out the finer features; freckles peppering over the stranger's shoulders and chest, the green- or maybe hazel- hues in his eyes. The stranger was close enough for Logan to smell his cologne, a smell that instantly sobered him.

He cleared his throat. "The gardens?" 

The boy nodded and resumed his position, half-guiding-half-pulling Logan along. Moments later, they were outside, and the scent of dewy grass and roses overcame the boy's cologne. Logan adjusted his mask as he tried to make out the flora around him. 

"This way," the stranger called, and Logan was suddenly pulled further into the gardens. 

“Wait,” Logan said, suddenly apprehensive about the notion of (quite literally) blindly following the stranger. “Where are we going?” 

The stranger glanced back at him, a soft smile playing on his lips. “Trust me, just a little further. I promise it’ll be worth it.” 

Logan’s nerves were instantly soothed, and he let the stranger pull him further. They rounded a corner, and suddenly, the stranger pulled him through a gap in the hedges into a secluded alcove. The stranger released Logan’s hand, and they sat together on a stone bench, the full moon gently illuminating the stranger’s face.  

“If I may, my dear?” the stranger asked, a subtle urgency and desire hidden in his voice. Logan nodded.

The stranger gently cupped his face, and as they leaned closer, the lingering scent of roses and cologne engulfed Logan. They locked eyes for a single moment, and then the stranger’s lips were firmly pressed against Logan's. He squeaked, the taste of strawberry lipstick exploding on his mouth, and he melted into the kiss, eagerly reciprocating. 

The stranger pulled away, and hesitantly, he reached out and gently removed Logan's mask. Logan didn't stop him. He was distracted, finally being able to see the gold flecks in the stranger's hazel eyes. 

Suddenly, the stranger gasped, dropping the mask and screwing his face in shock and horror. "Prince Logan?!" He whisper-shouted, covering his mouth and standing from the bench. 

"Yes…? Is there something-" 

The stranger ripped off his mask and threw it onto the ground. Logan paused, eyes squinting and he reached into his pocket and threw on his glasses. The realization hit him like a brick. He stood, covering his own mouth and stepping back. 

"Oh my god," Roman nearly yelled, forcing out a laugh. "You couldn't recognize me. Are you serious?" 

"I wasn't wearing my glasses and you were wearing a mask, what's your excuse?!" Logan spat out. Sudden panic set in and Logan thought he may throw up. 

Roman opened his mouth and gapped at him. He struggled to form words. "You were wearing a mask too!" 

"You can still see far better than I can!" 

Roman scoffed. "Forgive me for getting wrapped up in a beautiful moment! A masquerade ball and a handsome stranger who was brooding in the background the whole night steps out to drink champagne meant for the adults? It was sexy! Sue me!" 

Logan didn't have a moment to point out that they were both technically adults. His fists were shaking violently, rage filling his mind as he began to spat, "You're a dumbass! You should have let me introduce myself, then none of this would have happened." 

"You shouldn't have been flirting with me!" 

"You flirted with me too!" 

"I didn't know it was you!" 

Their argument escalated to yelling. 

"I can't believe you! You've been nothing but antisocial since the moment you set foot into the kingdom. I tried being friendly and charismatic but you've shut me down every time, and you have the gall to call me infuriating? What did I even do to you?" 

"Let's review, you insulted my brother Virgil to my face, mocked me with Prince Remus, and when I tried to be courdal and respectfully tell you to leave me alone, you decided to engage in childish petty pranks and destroy my property." 

"Are you still talking about your stupid book?!" 

Logan thought he may blow a fuse. "Yes!" 

"I already apologized for that. Just get over it!”

His blood boiling, Logan stormed over to Roman and forcefully grabbed his face, crashing his mouth onto his and instantly silencing Roman. Roman moaned and shuddered, and Logan wanted to roll his eyes. 

There was a whistling sound, and Roman shoved Logan away and wiped his mouth, cursing under his breath. His head shot to the hedges. "Remus?!" He whispered-shouted. 

"Hey, don't stop just because I'm here! When clothes started flying I would have left on my own." 

"Gross," Logan and Roman spat out. 

"You guys are the ones with your tongues down each other's throat!" Remus exclaimed. He stepped out of the hedges and jabbed Roman's chest with his elbow. "I'm glad you're seeing now Ro-bro!" 

"Seeing what exactly?" 

"That this family? Hot! Sexy people!" 

"Oh shut UP Remus!" He shoved him away. "He kissed me!" 

Logan's face burned. "You kissed me first!" 

"I REFUSE to repeat this argument again." 

"You guys kissed twice?! Damn it! I need to catch up." Remus looked at Logan, stepping forward slightly. "Heeeey Lolo, do you think Virgil would be interested in a little one-on-one time with me?!" 

"Ask him yourself! He already doesn't want to marry Janus!" 

Logan wanted to smack himself. A look of shock grew on the twins faces as they stared at each other, mouths wide in absolute bewilderment. Virgil was going to kill him. 

"FUCK!" Logan yelled, turning away from Roman and Remus as he processed what he had just revealed. He tugged at his hair, spinning back around on his heels. "You can't tell Janus- OR Virgil for that matter. Pretend I said nothing!" 

"No, no! This is good!" Remus squealed, bouncing on his toes and yanking on Romans arm. "This is the best news I've heard since- ever!" 

"How is this the best news ever?! It's an economic disaster! Your kingdom is struggling and this was supposed to help! Not to mention, if Virgil finds out-" 

"Janus doesn't want to marry Virgil either!" 

Logan snapped his mouth shut. 

Remus squealed, his bouncing turning into full on jumping. "Roman, do you think this means I have a chance with Virgil?! Do you think he and I can start courting?! We'll get married and I'll move kingdoms and-

"You don't even know if he likes you, Remus." 

"We could get that love potion again!" Remus raised his eyebrows and his face screwed up in an unpleasant grin. Logan grumbled and quickly glanced at Roman, who was rolling his eyes at Remus. "Is that meant to be some sort of a joke?" 

"Of course it is. Love potions aren't real, and it didn't work the first time anyway, Remus." 

"Didn't you hear?! Remy and Emile are fucking!" 

Logan sputtered and Roman gasped. 

"Language! Why can't you be mature and say 'having sex?!' Oh what am I talking about- you're lying! I know you are!" 

"Hmm nope! They've done a lot of sneaking around tonight. All the castle staff are talking about it too." 

"You gave my advisor a love potion?!" 

Remus nodded. "Yup! And it worked." 

"That's- preposterous!" 

"Magic doesn't lie." 

"Yeah, but older twin brothers do!" 

Remus shoved Roman, and Roman shoved him back. 

"I swear to whatever fucked up God you believe in, Remus, if you mess up my dress-" 

Remus ignored him and shoved Roman again. Before Roman could return the favor, Remus held him back with an outstretched hand. "Don't worry about it Logan, whether it's real or not, I would never force Virgil to drink it!" 

"Where did you get it?" Logan demanded. 

"Why, planning on giving it to Roman? You already kissed twice, seems a bit unnecessary." 

Logan flushed noticeably. "I want to know where you're getting your information from!" 

"Oh, nowhere in particular. I've just been dabbling in some potion making."  

Roman finally shoved away Remus's hand, and gasped exasperatedly. "He bought it from some crackpot old woman in town. I read the label, it's like some healing crystal, star sign-aligning guru shit. What a waste of money!" 

Remus stuck his tongue out at Roman. "One man's waste of money is another man's love potion. And who are you to say it doesn't really work? Maybe I slipped some in one of your drinks, and THAT'S how I found you guys out here." 

"Oh shut UP Remus!" 

"No thanks, I'm good." 

Remus turned on his heel and parted through the edges with ease. 

“Where are you going Remus?” 

“Back to the party of course! I heard some nasty rumor about one of the princes sneaking off with a stranger. That, and I gotta go find Janus to share what you two disasters were doing.”

“Don't you dare!” 

But there was no response. Roman angrily shook the air in front of him. “Ugh! I cannot stand him sometimes!” 

He took a long drawn out breath, and suddenly his attention was on Logan again. Logan swallowed harshly. 

“We can't tell anyone. It's bad enough that Remus knows. I'll keep my mouth shut, you'll keep yours shut, and we never mention this again.”

“Agreed.”

Logan was about to step out of the hedges when he was suddenly yanked back. His body was spun around and he was face to face with Roman. Logan sighed, and relaxed his muscles slightly.

"Was there something else?" 

"I want to apologize. You're right, I have been behaving rather 'infuriatingly,' as you put it." 

"It's… fine," Logan said after a moment. Wow, Roman was really close to him. "I expect a replacement of my book though, if you don't mind." 

"I think I can make that happen," Roman replied. Just then, he glanced down at Logan's lips, and Logan swallowed harshly. 

"Are you going to kiss me again, or are you teasing me on purpose?" 

"Do you want me to kiss you again?" 

"I wouldn't be opposed to it…" 

Roman leaned in, and Logan closed the gap between them. He inhaled deeply, mildly enjoying how airy and light his chest was feeling. He fought down a smile and leaned into Roman more. 

Then Roman pulled away, and the spell was partially broken. Logan fumbled with his cuffs as he stared into Roman's eyes.

"Two for one," Roman said, booping Logan's nose. "Better catch up, Lolo." 

"Is that a challenge?" 

"It might be," Roman mumbled. He gently shoved past Logan and through the opening in the hedges. "Till tomorrow, and all that." 

He stopped, and turned around. "If I find out you told anyone, I'll gut you like a fish.”

"As if I was going to anyway." 

[danielnelsen]

The Veilguard Q&A thing: Which location are you most excited/hoping to explore in-game? Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have? Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

answered the first one here

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

only very broadly. definitely a grey warden, but i havent decided between elven mage and dwarven rogue. every time i think im leaning more towards one over the other i realise im actually not lmao. i think there'll be the most extra dialogue and story content for elves and i dont wanna miss out on anything (obviously it will be a complete story either way, but yknow), but dwarves are my favourite race. the only reason i dont play dwarves very often is because i love playing as a mage. i think my choice will probably come down to what the actual backgrounds of the characters are: if we can play a dwarf with like..a dwarfy background, rather than a surface dwarf from a mostly human population, then that might tip the scales. i dont think i could resist playing a dwarf from the ambassadoria or kal-sharok (not that the latter is gonna happen).

i think my rook will be nonbinary, but i havent decided between he/him or they/them. im interested in how well the game will handle neutral pronouns, but my characters are also always somewhat an extension of myself, especially on my first playthrough. i'll most likely stick with a default name and face, but i'll definitely play around with the body customisation. hopefully you can be real-life fat, not just popular-media fat (aka not fat). today's article also revealed that you can adjust 'glute and bulge size'. so. we'll see where that takes me. if im already making the rest of my body bigger, then.........

im going into the game expecting to romance davrin, but we know nothing about anyone's personalities yet so that's very easily subject to change. second choice is emmrich. i think my rook will be a bit more serious than i usually play my dragon age characters, especially since we're starting out already having had some real-world experience (im a grey warden, after all), but who knows, maybe once i start picking dialogue options i'll just feel the need to be sweet to everyone.

this is all very surface-level stuff, which is the only planning im gonna do. maybe i'll be more sure of my race option by the time the game releases, but everything else will just evolve based on how the game goes. i dont wanna get too attached to a character that wont end up fitting well into the story.

15. Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

ok it took me a while to think of something because whenever i see a lot of people disagree with an opinion i have, i also see plenty of people who share my opinion... but i dont really want the inquisitor to have too big of a role. it makes sense for them to be there, and i especially understand people who romanced solas feeling like their inquisitor should have an important part in the story, but i think this is a bit of a limitation of having the plot directly follow from the events of dai. it wouldnt make sense for the inquisitor not to show up, but this isnt their game, it's rook's. id argue that it would make sense for them not to show up much because solas knows them already, but we've got harding as a companion, who solas is also very familiar with. that said, i expect the writers have probably learned from the reaction to hawke's cameo in dai and will do a better job of writing the inquisitor than they did with writing hawke lmao

[asoulofatlantis]

One of the most important reasons to replay CS3 is the fact that class 7 was included in this game so amazingly well. It never felt like new class 7 was pushing them into the background or that they lost importance to Rean or the plot. We have all characters involved in the game somehow, even the Azure-Traitor (tho mostly just standing there to look cool) was there to gawk it, if that is what you like to do XD Not once in this game did you have to miss your original Class7 friends or feel like they were left out or pushed into the background or anything like that. (Which is something CS4 completely failed to do...) They all got an amazing character development that felt just right for them as well and every reunion, being it the intimate kind of hug that Alisa got with Rean or the “I am here to save your ass, so we sadly don’t have time for a hug” - kind of reunion Fie got with Rean, were just perfectly matching the characters and their relationship with Rean and were all satisfying to watch. Cold Steel 3 managed something that many people were afraid they would fail at, when they saw original class 7 completely missing in the CS3 opening. And I just had to point that out here, because the end of CS3 is coming closer with every step we take in Heimdall, meaning that CS4 is fast approaching and in this game, they did old class 7 A LOT of injustice, just to push new class 7 to be the heroes. So lets enjoy this part of CS3 als long as we can.

Seeing firsthand that our dearly beloved Rean has even more reasons now to be allowed to get ALL the ladys, then he had before. That damn lucky bastard XD

The fact that Thomas, the freaking second Dominion and with that one of the strongest of them, second in command of them, right hand of Eien, is actually showing and proving to us in this very game, what we thought ever since we meet Kevin in Trails in the Sky - All Dominions are absolutely WEIRD.

The fact that NO ONE makes it a point to tell Rean that Towa and her Family invited him and not the whole of new Class7. Rean is oblivious as heck, we all know that, but usually SOMEONE does point stuff like this out. Not to mention the way Towa put it. She told her family about him and now they want to meet him. The conversation they will have when he is there actually pretty much confirms this too. But once again, no one spells it out for him ^^’

The fact that NO ONE ever cares about what Rean wants. Musses Grandfather, Alisas Grandfather and Towas Aunt and Uncle are all always talking like Rean is practically in a serious relationship with their girl and is just a step away from popping the question. While in fact, as of now, Rean is not dating anyone and has far more important things to do then getting married and planning his future. But no one even cares to think about what kind of life he as the Ashen Chevalier actually has or what being the Ashen Chevalier entails. Or, most importantly, what Rean actually wants in life. This isn’t even about if he actually wants to be with Towa, Musse or Alisa. This is about if Rean ever wants to get married and have kids. No one even askes if that is how he wants to spend the rest of his life. And given how many girls this man can have, I wouldn’t deny the possibility of him living a more carefree life - tho that is technically speaking indeed out of character for him. (However, if Falcom doesn’t do anything about the Harem-Issue in future games, he WILL in fact live a rather free and unmarried life forever XD)

The chance to do this, ever freaking time: “He only tried to kill us once and shot my father in the heart, he also lied to us and manipulated us and betrayed us a number of times, but he was truly the best friend I could ask for... I guess...” is what he should have said.

For some reason this whole Reuinion always brings tears to my eyes. My beloved Rean finally reunited with the whole of our dear class 7 ♥ Always worth replaying this game.

The fact that to this day, I am frustrated about the fact that we actually can not look through that album. I would love to see all the pictures and swim in the nostagia.

The fact that I just now realized that Crow was actually there for the reunion. He is such a softie at the end of the day, even with that freaking mask on XD

There is A LOT of lore coming up and some optional shipping-stuff I don’t want to miss out on. So this will be it for today.

[blazing-spectre]

different Anon here but something that always confused me is when people talk about how there’s 4 people named Michael, but I really can’t remember all four?? I know there’s Michael shelley/distortion, Mike Crew, and mikaele salesa, but who’s the last person???? x-files theme**

Lol yeah I feel ya. There are some (maybe 2?) random statement givers called Mike or Michael, as well as Michael Keay (married to Elsa von Closen, most likely Mary Keay’s father/grandfather), or, idk, Mike Labeau?

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 310: A Tale of Two Kacchans

Previously on BnHA: Flashback!Deku was all, “hey, you know what sounds like a good decision? Abandoning my studies at the safest place in the country so that the bad guy who wants to find me and kill me has literally nothing standing in his way of doing that.” All Might was all, “I fucking knew you were going to say some bullshit like that so whatever, but I’M COMING WITH YOU and I’m also going to invite the Hawksquad to come with us, mostly so that I can steal Jeanist’s car.” Jeanist was all, “okay fine you can borrow my car, All Might, but only if you wear jeans.” All Might was all, “okay sure” and he wore jeans and also sunglasses and a leather jacket and it was pretty rad. Anyway so now they’re out there fighting crime and hunting down the LoV and stuff, and absolutely none of it is going to end well, I’m just letting you know now. But I guess we’ll let them enjoy it while it lasts.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “happy belated Kacchan’s Birthday makeste, here’s the flashback you really wanted at long last,” and proceeds to pull the old vestige flashback out of the kitchen drawer and upend its contents all over my Friday afternoon without the slightest bit of warning. OFA III is all “WHAT’S UP I’M JUST SOME GUY, HELLO,” and okay?? Hello yourself. OFA II, on the other hand, is all, “okay yeah I have different hair and stuff, but I’m like 98% sure I’m either Bakugou or his goddamn twin, I mean look at me.” Which, yeah. I looked, and he really is though you guys. Anyway though, so he and OFA II basically just showed up in the First (who goes by Yoichi now)’s prison cell one day all “HEY THERE, WE’RE HERE TO SAVE YOU, APPARENTLY, ALTHOUGH WE SEEM REAL CONFUSED ABOUT IT TBH BUT HEY.” And so they saved him, and Yoichi was all “hey nice to meet you do you want to join my super-exclusive Saving The World Club”, and so they did, and then the chapter ended lol. I would have said yes too.

oh my sweet lord?? I didn’t realize we were getting a color page this week, but LOOK AT THIS

this could have been a fucking volume cover. I’m almost mad that it wasn’t, lol but I mean fkldjslklk just look at it??! Horikoshi out here spoiling us and making sure we’re well fed since next week the manga is on break for Golden Week. well this will certainly help to tide me over. hot damn look at those colors

so now it’s raining on some dumb building in the middle of somewhere

is this where the Hawksquad has set up camp for the night? or are we actually cutting back to the League? that’d be unexpected (but not unwelcome)

ffff nevermind dammit it’s just more random citizens under attack

feels like this is the third or fourth scene we’ve had of civilians being Under Attack since this arc started. I mean no offense, but I think we get it by this point. it’s the end times, etc. etc. we’re well aware that things have gone to shit

so apparently these two guys are facing off against a girl with a mutant quirk. and she’s telling them that she’s not a monster and she was just scared, oh shit. I believe her btw, you can see it in her face

but these assholes don’t believe her at all and they’re pointing what looks to be some type of support item gun at her

you know what’s interesting, is that this kind of random quirk discrimination is the exact kind of thing PLF and the like were swearing up and down they’d put a stop to with their glorious revolution. it’s almost like those guys were completely full of shit. huh

so yeah, fortunately for this woman someone is stepping in and intervening before she can be blasted to bits by this trigger-happy asshole for absolutely no fucking reason

looks like a hero actually stepped in and saved her?? but no that can’t be, heroes are the ones that ruin everything and make everything worse, or so I understand. lol where did all of this sarcasm come from out of nowhere dlkdsjlk I’m sorry guys I just suddenly got swept up in the hypocrisy of certain people’s philosophies out of the blue idek

anyway so it is of course Deku saving her, and now he’s trying to talk thess jerks down all diplomatically instead of just kicking their asses, which is certainly a choice

MOTHERFUCKER I’M

fucking impossible to miss the real world parallels here. shit. this woman nearly died for her crime of Walking While Having A Mutant Quirk huh. and meanwhile Deku is just letting this guy scurry away and even letting him keep that fucking bazooka of his, like, ????

fucking hell she’s crying!!

lmao this chapter is actively trying to make me mad now huh. that’s some genuine righteous anger I’m feeling on behalf of this fictional ferret lady whom I only met two minutes ago. girl you are not the one who needs to explain herself here!! you didn’t do anything wrong holy fuck. everything about this situation sucks so much

fkKJKLMMMHFGH

“I’m sorry I made you upset, please enjoy this panel of tiny!floating!Deku hefting this lady’s massive beach umbrella up for her like the fucking gentleman he is” well okay then thank you sir

and JUST LIKE THAT the tension is broken and I’m entirely incapable of taking the rest of this conversation seriously because Deku’s trying to be all calming and authoritative, but now the illusion has been broken because I know he only comes up to like her knees

“well thanks again for saving me young man. I’ll leave you to it, I’m sure you’ve got more important things to do like protecting your Lucky Charms cereal from all those greedy children”

oh hey All Might

you wouldn’t have just let that guy with the bazooka just walk away to commit more attempted murders would you?? man

OH MY GOD DEKU IS IMMEDIATELY DITCHING HIM AGAIN

I ~CANNOT STAY HERE~ oh, well, sorry to keep you detained I know you’re busy

dfslkjlk oh my god

fucking told you Deku didn’t pack any food lol. it’s literally all notebooks in that bag you guys. he couldn’t just leave them all in his dorm room when he left, because what if someone tried to read them and came across one of the pages where he absentmindedly doodled Kacchan’s name surrounded by little tiny hearts oh gosh

AWWWWW

I needed this Horikoshi. thank you for this wholesome soul-cleansing interaction after all of that bullshit earlier

so now Deku’s climbing up this tall building to eat his lunchbox more dramatically. Tokoyami would be proud

and Banjou is saying that society right now is just like in The Good Old Days (read: bad old days) when quirk society was even more of a mess than it is now

which is exactly how AFO likes it, no doubt

so now Deku’s having a whole conversation with Banjou seemingly out loud lol, weird. and he’s basically saying that they don’t have any clues as to where TomurAFO and the League are hiding right now, and none of the Tartarus escapees they’ve found knew anything either

mmmmmfmhm, marge simpson noises

but you think you can?? you, alone, by yourself?? you think you stand a chance?? I just need you to think this all through a bit more kid

Deku it is NOT JUST YOUR RESPONSIBILITY ALONE, PLEASE REALIZE THIS ALREADY. YOU MAY BE THE CHOSEN ONE, BUT EVEN THE CHOSEN ONE NEEDS HIS FRIENDS BY HIS SIDE GODDAMMIT

and of course my pleading is all in vain, because he’s a fictional character who can’t fucking hear me, and also because I’m pretty sure there’s only one character who is going to actually be able to get him to hear reason here. I’ve been saying it, and I’ll keep saying it lol. so until then I guess I’ll just have to be patient

anyway so it appears we’re segueing into another flashback??? HORIKOSHI PLEASE GIVE ME SOME BAKUCRUMBS BEFORE THE TWO WEEK BREAK, I BEG YOU

dlKSDJLFKWJELKGHSLGKLEKJLFKHLGK

YES, THANK YOU, I KNOW WHERE THIS FUCKING IS LOL, IT’S NOT LIKE I’VE BEEN OBSESSED WITH FINDING OUT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE REST OF THIS SCENE OR ANYTHING LMAO. BUT ANYWAYS DON’T MIND ME, YOU WERE SAYING??

oh my god oh my god I’m not readyyyyy, but also FUCK YEAH I AM SO FUCKING READY LOL LET’S DO THIS

YOU GUYS

I’M ABOUT TO STEP IN THAT ROOM AND YEET ONE OF THOSE FUCKING CHAIRS AT YOU ALL

NOOOOO

I’M ABOUT TO GRAB BANJOU’S GOGGLES AND STRETCH THEM OUT AND SNAP THEM BACK SO THEY SMACK THE SHIT OUT OF HIS FOREHEAD!!! IT’S WHAT HE DESERVES!!! I’M ABOUT TO MOVE TO JAPAN AND GET A JOB WITH DOORDASH AND FIND OUT WHAT HORIKOSHI LIKES TO ORDER FOR LUNCH SO I CAN BE THE ONE TO DELIVER IT SO THAT WHEN HE OPENS THE DOOR I CAN FINALLY ASK HIM “HEY WHAT THE FUCK” IN PERSON

AHHH NO EVERYBODY SHHHHH STOP TALKING!!!!

SOMEONE PLEASE TELL THAT PERSON SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS IN THE BACKGROUND TO SHUT THE FUCK UP, OH WAIT, THAT’S ME

(」゜ロ゜)」 щ(゜ロ゜щ)

LOL THIS FUCKING ASSHOLE!!! LOOK AT YOU!!! YOU’RE NOT KIRISHIMA OR SHINSOU OR IIDA IN A WIG OR ANYBODY LOL. YOU’RE JUST A DUDE. BROOOOO ABOUT FUCKING TIME, WHAT’S GOOD

I CAN’T SCROLL DOWN AHHHH BUT I HAVE TO BUT IT’S TOO INTENSE AHHHHHHH

I CAN SEE THE TOP OF HIS SPIKY HEAD, IT’S FINALLY THAT TIME AHHHHHHHH OKAY I’M GONNA DO IT HERE GOES

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IT’S HIM. IT FUCKING REALLY FUCKIGN IS HIM OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. WHY AM I SO SHOCKED LMAO I’M THE ONE WHO’S BEEN SAYING THIS THE WHOLE DAMN TIME LMAO. OH GOD. O H MY FUCKING GOD

well okay then sir. so are you an ~ancestor~ or a Kacchan from another timeline or so what’s your deal then

YOICHI WHO IS YOICHI

YOICHI ALWAYS KNOWS WHAT’S UP. LMAO WHO IS YOICHI

(ETA: I’m going to punch myself in the face lmao. he’s Yoichi. he, the First. that’s his name. name reveal at long last what what!!)

MORE IMPORTANTLY SHOULD I BE IMAGINING NOBU’S VOICE RIGHT NOW BECAUSE LMAO I AM ANYWAY BUT YEAH

(ETA: I actually think he’s going to end up being voiced by Nobuhiko whether he ends up being Kacchan or not, just because it fits right in with the general “identical in almost every way” aesthetic he’s got going on.)

TUMBLR HOW WE LIKING OUR ANGSTY ALTERNATE UNIVERSE KACCHAN?? EVERYONE HATED YOU SO MUCH BEFORE THEY EVEN MET YOU, BUT THEY FORGOT TO CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY THAT YOU MIGHT BE HOT LMAO WHAT A TWIST

“some bright-eyed brat” oh come on. IT’S GOTTA BE HIM LOL

oh my god you all are probably TIRED AS FUCK of all my screaming but I’M SORRY IMMA HAVE TO DO IT ONE LAST TIME BECAUSE...

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

that face. that expression!! THE FACT THAT HE’S OUT HERE OPENING DOORS WITH HIS FEET, LIKE HOLY SHIT!! JUST ADMIT THE JIG IS UP ALREADY

and so they really are the ones who busted First out of his jail cell huh

so how did they know you were in the room?? why did they come and break you out?? and how, pray tell, did they know to get you to transfer OFA to them?? hmmmMMMMMMMM

oh MY GOD

you guys. oh my god. it’s too much. every last bit of it lines up exactly with the Bakuverse theory sdkjfj I’m short-circuiting. it’s really fucking happening oh my lord

HELLO SEXY ALTERNATE UNIVERSE KACCHAN WITH HIS SEXY FUCKING SCAR, FUCK YEAH WE REALLY ARE EATING GOOD THIS CHAPTER

HELL YEAH WE’RE GOING. WE’RE GOING FULL SPEED YOU GUYS. LMAO I’M SO FUCKING HYPED RIGHT NOW I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF WEFKJLDKFFFF

SO, EVERYONE, LET’S RECAP. -- ACTUALLY NO, I STARTED TO WRITE UP A LIST, BUT I IMMEDIATELY REALIZED IT REALLY JUST NEEDS TO GO IN ITS OWN THREAD. SO I MADE IT AND POSTED IT, AND NOW I’M FINISHING UP THIS HOT MESS OF A RECAP POST. SO NOW WE’RE BACK TO THIS ONE FINAL PANEL OF DEKU EATING HIS KATSU ALL SERIOUS

YES SIR. YES SIR, WE GOING, FULL SPEED AHEAD, WHATEVER, IDK WTF IS HAPPENING BUT YES!!

lol, anyways so as I said in my other post, mysterious sexy guys with tragic pasts are what bring us together as a fandom, so whatever your thoughts are on the rest of it, let’s just rejoice in that. it’s what we deserve

[ketchupkio]

Hey...

I found your au but.. I'm so confused. Can you give me a rundown of what the premise of your au is? I read confidential bbut I feel like I'm missing important background info. In don't get what's going son at all

(pspsps hey we have an au blog with more info and au related asks go there, please don't send them to my personal inbox bc I'm not the only one writing this series-- @ageless-soul-au)

AH! Confidential doesn't have a whole lot of plot going on, it's mostly character setup, so don't worry about understanding the plot of that. But I can give you a rundown of the basic plot of the whole series.

Time travel! The heroes in Con don't know why they're doing what they're doing, so it could get confusing since no one is explaining anything. Some things will be explained by the end! But we're not there yet.

Uh. Spoilers for anything past Con???

The chain is trying to round up heroes from other eras because they've been told they're trying to face a Big Bad-- SOMETHING that needs their attention but only maybe Hyrule knows the most about it, and even they don't know the whole thing. But they have little devices that we call time jumpers or jump sticks, something like that, and they use those to move from era to era. They only go to specific set points atm, kinda like a device that's been child locked. They've been told to gather heroes and that's about all they know.

Later works in the series (that were written previously, sorry about that) explain that the Big Bad is named Mikah (non binary, they/them)-- they have a vendetta out for heroes, or just one in particular but they're so bitter that they'll take the rest down along with their original target. Mikah has employed two notable lackeys from history-- Kohga, the ORIGINAL founder of the Yiga from 10,000 years before botw (and his name was passed down as a kind of title through the ages) and Ghirahim, and I'm sure you know who that is. The way he is here again is a secret tho....

Instead of allowing Mikah to wreak havoc on the timelines (because they're a super powerful sorcerer who learned how to do that), a timeline-protecting agency from the future is set to step in! They sent out letters to specific heroes to notify them in advance and assumed the rest would get picked up by the chain as they went along. And they'll save the day! Right?

Enter Nadea. You might have seen her name float around the blog. She works for the time bureau and has met the heroes. Is she supposed to be there...? Nnnnnnnooooo.... See, the heroes were cut kinda a shit deal and she knows that and is set to make it right, so... she is interfering. Her bosses do not know she's there and she prefers to keep it that way. But she's here to help in whatever way she can!! (without spoiling too much for them)

For the rest, more is explained in Eye for an Eye, as well as Love and Trust (mostly the latter bc the Ganondorf Thing is explained and Mikah is extrapolated on). But yeah!!! That's basically what's going on in the Beginning Conflicts of the au, which don't actually pick up until E4E. (Technically Grace Period, but our rewrite (and expansion) of that will be our next project, and Con is almost over so that's soonish.)

Hooooopefully that cleared some things up? Let us know if you have more questions on @ageless-soul-au (that we can answer without spoilers lmao)

[flames-tstuff]

Okay so, um, I hope you don’t mind me requesting something! ^.^ 💕 You always support me and I wanna support you too!

So, Uraraka and Ojiro. Fluff & Tickles. The idea is that Uraraka is stressed out and one way she copes is by coloring, and Bakugou or whoever sees her and teases her, then Ojiro defends her and says like, it’s fine to be a kid sometimes, bc they’ve grown up pretty fast. And so like, the next day they go to a park and swing, he gets her ice cream, then they go back to the dorm and color while watching cartoons, and then a tickle scene happens on the cartoon, and then it leads to him tickling her and hugs and cuddles and friendship. Aaaaa 🙈

To Be a Kid Again (BNHA)

Ojiro wants to show Uraraka that it’s okay to be a kid again sometimes.

Pairings: Platonic Uraraka and Ojiro

Warnings: Bakugou being a jerk, some light angst

Word count: 1.9k

A/N: Omg this is such a cute pairing!! I've never even considered them together, either as friends or as partners. What would their ship name be? Ojiraka? Also, I've never written for either of them, so I hope this is okay!

Uraraka was tired. It had been a long day at school, and despite the fact that it was only Wednesday, she was more than ready for the weekend.

After changing out of her uniform and grabbing a couple items from her room, Uraraka flopped down onto one of the couches of the commons with a heavy sigh. She really didn’t have anything to do now that classes were over for the day. She’d already finished her homework and dinner wasn’t for another or hour or so. Despite how exhausted she was, she had just enough energy left to do one of her favorite activities to pass the time: coloring.

She didn’t know why exactly, but something about sitting down and letting herself get lost in the mindlessness of coloring had always been soothing to her. So there she was, sitting on the couch crisscross, using her knee as a table and getting to work. After a few minutes, the brain fog that had been plaguing Uraraka the last couple of hours began to disappear, and her mind was back as ease.

That was, until Bakugou came into the room. Looking just as tired and grumpy as she felt, Bakugou was about to head up to his room when Uraraka accidentally caught his eye.

“What are you looking at, Round Face?”

She quickly looked back down at her lap in alarm. “N-Nothing. Sorry.”

Bakugou continued to glare her way when he noticed the book in her lap and the pile of markers next to her. He came a few feet closer, eyeing it suspiciously.

“Tch. What are you, five years old?”

“Wh… what do you mean?”

At this time, Ojiro had just entered the commons and was just about to step into the elevator when the other students’ conversation caught his attention.

“Coloring books? Seriously? That shit’s for babies.”

Uraraka felt her cheeks start to burn.

“Hey, hey!” Ojiro jogged over to see what the commotion was about. Bakugou tended to pick fights pretty easily. “What’s going on here?”

Bakugou just crossed his arms and scowled at him.

Ojiro looked down at Uraraka, whose ears and cheeks were painted red. He then noticed the art supplies surrounding her. “Is he giving you a hard time?”

Uraraka just looked back and forth between the two of them, not daring to say anything.

“I heard you say something was ‘for babies,’” Ojiro turned to Bakugou with a stern look on his face. “You weren’t talking about coloring, were you?”

Again, silence.

“It’s really not, you know. People draw and color all the time! Besides, even if it was, what’s wrong with that? Everyone should be allowed to do things they enjoy, especially something as harmless as coloring. I don’t see what the problem is.”

“The problem is that we’re trying to be heroes!” Bakugou shot back. “Heroes shouldn’t be doing childish shit like that! If you really wanted to be a hero you’d be out training!”

Ojiro sighed, a little exasperated. “Of course training is important. But rest is important too. Doing things you love is important. If you don’t take the time to be a kid and let loose a little, you’re going to burn out. No pun intended, in your case, Bakugou.” Ojiro smiled, a little teasingly.

“Ugh, whatever,” Bakugou relented and headed back towards the elevator. “Whatever it’ll take for you to shut up and stop lecturing me.”

Uraraka and Ojiro both snickered at that, and in a few moments, it was just the two of them.

“Sorry about that,” Ojiro said apologetically. “Bakugou can be a real pain sometimes.”

“No kidding,” she agreed. “Um… thanks. You really didn’t have to do that. I’m sure I would’ve been okay on my own.”

“Of course you would have! But what are friends for?” Ojiro smiled brightly, holding out his hand. Uraraka smiled back and accepted the hand up. “You hungry? I think it’s about time for dinner.”

~~~

The next day was just as hard, though Uraraka did feel a little better after a good night’s sleep.

After dinner the previous night, Ojiro had asked if she’d want to hang out the next day after classes, in attempt to keep tabs on her since her fight with Bakugou. She assured him she was fine, but he insisted that it was his treat, so she obliged.

“So where are we going?” Uraraka asked walking next to Ojiro on the sidewalk.

“I’m taking you to one of my favorite places.” The two entered a chain link-fenced area.

“…a playground?”

“Yep! This was one of my favorite places in the world as a kid, and it still is. Come on! Let’s swing!”

And before she could argue, Ojiro grabbed her hand and tugged her along towards the swing set. Thankfully there wasn’t anyone else around, so they had the place to themselves.

“So,” Uraraka started, swinging her legs a little. “Why are we doing this exactly? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love hanging out! But where is this coming from?”

Ojiro laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, a little sheepish. “I was thinking, well… I wanted to show you that’s it’s okay to be a kid. To let loose a little. You seemed like you needed it, especially after what happened yesterday.”

Uraraka’s heart warmed at that. She really couldn’t ask for better classmates as friends.

Ojiro’s expression dropped to something a little more serious. “I’ve realized that we’ve all had to grow up so fast in these last few years. It makes me kind of sad.”

“Why is that?” Uraraka questioned.

“Don’t you miss this kind of stuff?” He gestured to the rest of the play set. “As much as I hate it, I think you and I both know there’s some truth to what Bakugou said yesterday. Heroes are supposed to be constantly training, constantly trying to grow and improve their skills. All that’s great, but it leaves no room to be what we actually are… teens. Kids. Don’t you ever feel like you grew up too fast?”

Uraraka couldn’t help but think about her parents. How, as just a little girl, barely old enough to go to school, she committed to helping them make money in any way she could. All the experiences she’d missed out on when she was younger due to her family’s financial situation. “Yeah… I guess I do.”

Ojiro offered a sympathetic smile. “That’s why it’s times like these, in the little spare moments we have to ourselves, that we can take the time to indulge that inner child.”

Uraraka took a moment to digest his words. “I think I understand now.” Then, in a small, hopeful voice: “Maybe... a-after we’re done here, we could... um... get some ice cream?”

Ojiro grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.” He hopped off his swing. “Race ya!”

“Hey, no fair!” Uraraka laughed and chased after him.

~~~

After getting their ice cream—strawberry for Uraraka and vanilla for Ojiro—the two friends happily walked back to the dorms together.

“By the way,” Ojiro said, “I never got the chance to tell you, but I saw your coloring book, and well… it looks really good!”

“Oh!” Uraraka looked down, a little embarrassed. “Hah, thanks…”

He could tell she did believe him. “I’m being serious! I think it’s really cool that you’re into that kind of stuff. Have you always liked coloring? You seem to be good at it.”

“Yeah, but I really can’t take much credit. I mean, it’s just filling in the shapes. It’s not like I drew it,” she reasoned, licking her ice cream.

“Hey, I can hardly stay in the lines, so it’s impressive to me.”

Uraraka laughed, knowing he was probably just saying that to make her feel good, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

“Thank you,” she said, speaking as sincere as possible. They had made it back to the common area of the dorms where they stood, waiting to depart to their own rooms. “For everything.”

Ojiro realized she thought he had brought her back here to say goodbye. “Hey, if you want, you can hang in my room.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! We could watch TV, or if you have homework to work on, I won’t bother you.”

She smiled. “I’d love that. Thanks again, Ojiro, you’re the best.” She threw her arms around him in a tight hug. Ojiro was a little taken aback, but quickly returned the gesture.

The two friends sat comfortably on his bed with their backs against the wall. The TV droned on in the background, mostly forgotten, as they chatted about school and their weekend plans.

Once the conversation died out, they settled down to watch what was playing on the screen, falling into comfortable silence. One of the characters poked the other, making them jump back and laugh. Ojiro smiled at the scene and stole a quick glance at Uraraka to see how she was doing, just in time to see her blush a little at the sight. It was so brief, if he hadn’t looked at just the right moment he would’ve missed it.

Suddenly feeling mischievous, Ojiro darted his hands to Uraraka’s sides and began squeezing, making her squeal and fall back on the bed in a fit of happy giggles.

“Ohohjiroho! Eeeep! Whaha—Why? Hahaha!”

“Because! I wanna hear you laugh! Didn’t I tell you to start letting loose?”

Uraraka was too weak and giddy to respond or do much more than weakly bat his hands in a half-hearted attempt.

Ojiro made the mistake of coming closer to get better purchase on her ribs, and Uraraka pushed through the tickly feeling just enough to be able to reach a hand up and scratch at the base of his spine, making him yelp and jerk away. This gave Uraraka just enough time to gain the upper hand by pushing him down and straddling his waist with her knees.

“Uraraka, wa-HAHAHAIT!” he burst into loud belly laughter as she began kneading up and down his torso the same way he had done to her.

“Maybe you should start taking your own advice, Ojiro!” she laughed with him. “Come on, you shouldn’t be afraid of being a kid again, right? Tickle tickle!”

This made his cheeks turn bright red and his laugh go a few pitches higher.

Uraraka was feeling all-powerful with Ojiro now at her mercy. That was, until she felt a soft, feathery feeling against her neck and under her chin, making her flinch and snort.

“Ohohoh my gohohosh, you snohorted!” Ojrio teased through his own laughter.

“N-no fahahair!” Uraraka stammered out as best she could. “You shohouldn’t be allowed t-to use your tahahail!”

“Wehehell too bahad! I’m using it!”

The two stayed like that, trying to out-tickle each other—Uraraka going at his ribs and belly, and Ojiro trying his best to throw her off using his tail to brush all over her neck and sides, both laughing hysterically. Eventually Uraraka was weakened just enough for Ojiro to get her back one last time before they both collapsed in exhaustion.

“Jeez, you don’t give up easy, do you?” Uraraka panted, a big smile still on her face.

“No,” Ojiro agreed. “But you held out pretty long too, I’m impressed.”

After finally catching their breath, Uraraka opened her arms in offering. “Cuddles?”

Ojiro couldn’t have refused the offer if he tried. “Heh. Yeah, cuddles.”

He scooted closer and wrapped his arms around her torso, leaning his head into her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him in return, resting her head atop his.

And there they stayed for the rest of the evening.

[doctorofmagic]

My thoughts on Stephen and Carol

That was... unexpected, to say the least. Now I have this task to elaborate my feelings and opinions in a way that is paradoxically personal and rational at the same time.

Let’s begin.

Background

Carol and Stephen know each other for a very, very long time. Their first team-up happened in Marvel Team-Up v1 #76 (1978), when Silver Dagger captured Clea (again - and yes, I’ll talk about her later). Both Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel decided to offer a helping hand to Stephen.

Stephen also assisted Carol in a mystic issue, combining their powers in Ms. Marvel v2 #4-5 (2006). It’s from this very run I suspect Kelly Thompson pictured the idea of a relationship between them. Nothing official, but all it takes to assume there’s something else going on is a mere look.

It’s true they were on opposite sides post Civil War, but Carol decided to join the New Avengers later on, which also gives this relationship one more layer.

Lastly, Aaron’s Avengers also featured them on the same team for a while, in addition to the previous Captain Marvel v10 #6-7, in which they swapped bodies and Carol had a taste of Stephen’s pain. We’re also considering Captain Marvel v10 #19 because, at this point, it’s clear that Thompson had plans for them since 2019.

Captain Marvel #27

Since this a blog dedicated to Stephen, it’s hard for me not to look through his perspective. I know the story is about Carol and how she’s struggling to mourn. But you’re all here for him. So this is my very detailed yet not-so-reliable review about their moment together.

....

Stephen is so sweet, wtf.

First, he confesses that he lost a patient on the table, WHICH MEANS that Thompson is following the events of Surgeon Supreme. Honestly? It’s the first comic book to do so. But fine. I can live with that.

Man is not having a good day. In fact, it’s a terrible day, which probably justifies the end. Here we another glimpse that Stephen still can’t deal with loss. Life is so important to him precisely because he has lost so much. In addition, for a moment, he forgets that Carol isn’t supposed to be drinking. So he turns the whiskey into Seltzer. In the meantime, Carol can’t help but relate to him. I know, Carol, I’VE BEEN THERE.

There’s another moment that warmed my heart (in a sense because it’s quite sad when you think about it). Stephen asked Carol if he was bothering her. Do you have any idea how insecure Stephen is? BECAUSE HE IS. He’s always afraid of bothering people and that’s why he isolates himself. That’s why he’s always pushing people away. That’s why he’s so miserable and lonely.

Stephen is the sweetest, I can’t. He doesn’t even know his own favorite color. COME ON, STEPHEN.

I admit, though. They know how to flirt. Stephen is the kind of person who flirts through self-loathing, which is only natural given his mental health. And Carol... Well, she’s a girlboss. It’s perfect. Also he’s sassy. And do I love my sassy boi? Very much.

But here’s another sad thing. Stephen is not seen as a “good addiction”. He’s simply not the worse one. And he’s aware of that. Do you know how I know? I mean, despite all the countless articles I wrote about his self-loathing?

Because of this:

Yet again Stephen is aware that he used someone else to fill his void. And yet again, he was used. I can’t remember the last time Stephen had a healthy relationship. In fact, I can. It was with Linda, the Night Nurse. And that was a loooong time ago. I can’t even begin to comprehend how lonely he feels. And how miserable he feels whenever he fails to create a solid bond. Not only romantic ones, but also platonic relationships and friendships as well. I want him to be happy, it’s not too much. So why am I on the verge of tears?

Fine. I dissected the issue panel by panel, such is my commitment. But how I truly feel about them? Before answering that...

Things to be considered

Hear me out. There’s a very famous forbidden OTP party in Secret Wars: Secret Love #1. I can’t remember the author of the post but here, on this very hellsite, they confirmed some of those OTPs were ships that Marvel would never allow to happen because they’re, well, LGBTQIA ships. Cherik? Yes. Stony? Yes. Kate Bishop and America Chavez? Yes. CarolJess? YES. It’s the closest we’ll ever get to Marvel’s main characters to be queer.

I’m quite open to shipping Stephen with any character. However, I cannot look away when I’ve always rooted for Carol to be an LGBTQIA character. So, much to my surprise, as I was checking the spoilers on the hopes that Jess and Carol would finally have a revelation... STEPHEN HAPPENED. Trust me, Carol stans, this was as much unexpected to me as it was to you.

Truth be told, as a Stephen stan, I get tons of hate, because people mostly know him for his Illuminati era and how patronizing he behaves sometimes. But this is the reason why I made this blog. I want more people to know Stephen as deeply as I do. I know it’s frustrating. But I’m not the enemy. You have no idea how hard I try to find subtle words and clues that Stephen is not straight (because he isn’t, please).

So, after all is said and done... I still think they’re cute. And please, do not hand me down a guilty verdict yet.

I think of Stephen a lot on a daily basis, so it’s only natural to headcanon which heroes he has hooked up with throughout the years. And I swear to Vishanti, Carol crossed my mind a few times. I only figured it would never happen. But it did and now I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel. But it’s okay. Because it’s not going to last - and I’ll explain why.

The future

Despite the fact that CarolJess should be a thing™, when it comes to canon, she’s deeply connected to Rhodes. Their relationship is so important to Carol that she sacrificed it out of love. She’s mourning. There’s this feeling of emptiness in her heart, pretty much similar to what Stephen experienced when Clea left him the first time.

They’ve met in a very delicate and frail state of mind and spirit. Some (most?) people do it, as an attempt to fill the void with anything or anyone that resembles affection. They’re aware of that.

That’s why I don’t think it will last. It’s not a relationship born through mutual growth, it’s a relationship born in mourning and sorrow.

You know me, mates. I’d do anything for Stephen’s happiness. But that’s not it. His happiness lies on a powerful sorceress from the Dark Dimension. You know her name. And Carol? Well, if not on Jess because Marvel desires to keep selling comic books to homophobes, then on Rhodes.

It feels just like my hook up list headcanon, only better because there’s angst. And boi, do I love angst?

That said... We have more issues coming, in addition to that beautiful cover for #29. Let’s wait and see. I do think Carol and Stephen share an angsty a beautiful background and that’s why I’d rather have them instead of Elektra. No offense, Elektra and Stephen are HOT. But I believe Carol and Stephen offer deeper layers. And this is why I made such a long post about them and didn’t do the same to Savage Avengers. No matter how hard I try to be rational, when it comes to Stephen, it’s just stronger than me.

PS: forgive me if I missed something, I’m truly exhausted but my mind wouldn’t allow me to rest until I made this post. Thank you for your support.

[lettrespromises]

PLAN À TROIS.— TODOROKI, BAKUGOU.

A.N:

❝ dear reader,

why hello it is i, nikki, back at it again. this post was specifically written thanks to @sasukelore’s big brain, meaning that this one is for the boys with the booming system, top down, AC with the cooler system😔✊🏻. it’s my first attempt at writing smut (which means it’s a direct ticket to hell) so please bare with me, i hope you’ll like it! if you have any feedback, please feel free to send it to me! also, my requests are open for business hehe.

sincerely yours,

nikki.

P.S: “plan à trois” has a double meaning— it means “threesome” in french but it also literally means “a plan involving three people” which is the core of the story, both literally and figuratively. ❞

Genre: Smut. (All three of the characters have been aged up.)

Warnings: Cursing, mentions of drugs (but no actual use of drugs), unprotected sex (please use a condom), nudity, spanking, choking, cunnilingus, blow-job, temperature play, threesome, dirty things.

Word count: 6.5k (she’s a big girl, don’t be shy.)

Letter object: One hotel. One gala. One mission. One person to take down. Three heroes. You and Shoto have to play the perfect fake couple to gain your enemy’s trust, the only thing is, Shoto has no clue how to behave as a couple. The unexpected help comes from Ground Zero who seems a bit too impatient and eager to show Shoto how to really treat a lady.

Metaphorically speaking, the heroes are seen as the predators and the villains as the preys, it’s always been that way— an eternal game of hide and seek, which only ends in binary results, either victory or loss. The latest news concerning the hero world had put this little game to a halt: the hushed rise of the anti-quirks drugs were concerning. The enemy was everywhere and nowhere, it was all whispers, a thread of ‘who said what’, mere illusions replaced authentic clues. The rules of the game had been changed into a paradox where the villains became the predators and the heroes were deemed as the preys.

The rule of silence, which could have easily been personified as the ringleader of this dystopic scenario, was cruel— anyone could be suspected of being a link of the drug chain. But fret not, if you were suspected and voices started to echo around louder and louder, a little bit of hush money was the price to pay to reinstate the rule of silence. Anyone could be a culprit, even (or mostly) into the highest spheres of society. Those who are worshipped in an agnostic way, they were on top of the social food chain and, perhaps even, on top of the drug chain. These elites have been very vocal about their will to suppress the almighty authority pro-heroes possess— feeling threatened for their own sake and their own inferiority complex, they were willing to play dirty to be able to rule the country with an iron fist.

The corrupted elites still remained as elites and enjoyed their mondane occupations— galas being one of them. It was a dream opportunity for you as a pro-hero, a room crowded with highly potential culprits served on a silver plate with a cup of champagne to serve as the cherry on the cake.

Stealth missions were highly dangerous if you didn’t have a cover good enough, and treading on the playground of influential people could possibly cost you your career as a pro-hero, but if you managed to succeed, you were bound to bask in glory. Keeping a realistic cover is the number one check on the list entitled “how not to blow up your whole mission and be hated by the rest of the country.” Luckily enough, your agence had already done all the dirty work for you and sent you everything you needed— a flawlessly cut evening attire, a shockingly well-done fake ID and a full file regarding the background of your character, all down to the tiniest details. And I cannot emphasize enough “all” the details...

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me…” Amongst the myriad of details (and some of them were completely unnecessary, I mean, was your favorite fruit really important?), one of them was impossible to ignore. “Shoto Todoroki, really?” His name rolled off your tongue for a reason, you were supposed to play his pseudo fiancée for the night. Your thumb brushed the surface inked with his name, unconsciously wishing that if you were brushing hard enough, his name would disappear and so would your almost wilted high school crush on him.

Your silent complains were cut short, the sound of someone knocking on your door stirred you from the invasion of your thoughts. Then the knocking sound echoed once more. “Just a second!” Has anyone heard of the concept of patience? Waiting a few seconds for someone to open the door isn’t a inhuman task. Eventually (although it could’ve have been funny to let this mysterious person fume because you purposefully took too long), you opened the door to your hotel room and it just felt like you had welcomed a storm in. Much to your surprise, there were two surprise guests, two U.A alumnis just like you— Shoto and Ground Zero.

“Well, shit, were you planning on letting us fucking die in the hallways, woman?! What the fuck took you so goddamn long, ha?” When I mentioned a storm earlier on today, I meant Bakugou Katuski— his annoyance was transcripted upon his face through the frowning of his eyebrows and the wrinkle sitting between them. “It’s good to see you too Bakugou, glad to see you missed me after all this time.” His hands were shoved in his pockets, clearly not keen on listening to your sarcastic remarks nor wearing a tuxedo for the night. “Tch. Keep your smart ass talk to yourself, dumbass.”

You had indeed let a storm invade your hotel room. But unbeknownst to you, you had also welcomed a hypotizing breeze, the polar opposite of Bakugou, and apparently future fiancé for the night: Shoto Todoroki. His facial expression reflected nothing but pure serinity, a signature stoic face which radically clashed with Bakugo’s scowl. Todoroki was so discreet, almost blending his presence with the newfound silence. He was wearing an evening suit of his own, aquamarine was his color after all, it was a known fact since your high school years.

“Y/N, as you may be aware, I am here for the stealth mission. Bakugou is going to accompany us just in case something goes wrong. It was a last minute change, but considering the household names who are going to attend this gala, too much precaution is better than not enough.” Ohh, so that was the reason why the angry gremlin was here. Although, you wondered how Shoto felt about the two of you acting as a fake engaged couple, was he still serene about that? “Yeah, while you two fake lovebirds will be busy eating each other’s faces off, I’m gonna be around to check if there is any intell on these anti-quirk selling bastards.” Each of his word was accompanied by a hand gesture pivoting between you and Shoto and, of course, the same old look of annoyance plastered upon his face. You and Shoto, on the other one hand, appeared a bit surprised at the use of “fake lovebirds”, it just hasn’t sunk in yet... Denial, perhaps?

“Speaking of kissing and shit— you, half and half bastard, do you still have a fucking stick up your ass or do you know how to act in a relationship?!” His interrogation was accompanied with a daring glance thrown in Todoroki’s direction and an eyebrow lifted just to emphasize the characteristic of his question a bit more. A bold question which immediately found its answer from the mouth of Todoroki, needless to say, you felt this remark coming. “Bakugou, you’re the last person here who could pretend having the knowledge necessary to provide relationship advices.” You couldn’t help but let a laugh escape at Todoroki’s remark highlighted by its bluntness, although you quickly changed your mind once you felt Bakugou’s stare landing on you with such rage causing you to hush your laugh by biting your thumb.

“Ha?! What the fuck did you just say, half and half bastard? Use that fucking mouth for yours for good measure and let’s see if you can kiss Y/N correctly. I won’t let this mission be blown up by your stupid ass.” This time, there was a hint of amusement in Bakugou’s voice, it was hard to distinct if he asked that because he truly cared about the mission or if he just wanted to push Todoroki out of his comfort zone. But the ghost of a smirk drawn upon his face seemed to support the second hypothesis.

“Guys, just a second here. I understand why we have to take care of our cover but it’s not like Todoroki and I are going to kiss all night long.” Your gaze alterned between Todoroki and Bakugou, it became impossible to hold your gaze on a fix structure due to how flustered you felt, and soon enough, your cheeks were quick to adopt a rosy tone. “Y/N, are you scared of kissing me by any chance?” You secretly hated the obvious tone of concern in Todoroki’s voice, he was willing to do anything to make this mission a success but also make sure you were comfortable around him. “N-No! It’s just… I don’t mind it.” What a miracle, you finally managed to look at him in the eyes but the blush on your cheeks was as lively as ever. “Then damn, if you don’t mind it just fucking kiss already we don’t have all night, dumbass.” You could tell by Bakugou’s body language that he was growing more and more impatient by the second, his arms were crossed over his chest— he was getting pissed.

Todoroki captured your attention once more when his index brushed the surface of your skin right below your chin while his thumb was carefully set upon your jawline. His orbs shone by their gleam of reassureance, his eyes met yours, as a silent way to ask your for permission and you fluttered your lids shut as an answer. As if it was some kind of second nature to him, his other arm compassed your waist in order to bring you close to him. His lips finally touched yours. Each one of his actions was so soft, you could barely feel them yet, you felt like you were floating on a cloud. His lips were melting ever so perfectly with yours, as if your lips were the sole one which could fit is, you couldn’t help but to hum as the carefulness of his lips overwhelmed you. The kiss was shy, experimental, and yet so agonizing. He was temptingly and agonizingly slow, which only made you crave for more. However, given the lack of oxygen, you had no choice but to (relanctutly) break the kiss. You opened your eyes and basked in Todoroki’s beauty, still in awe at what just happ—… “Oi! Have you ever kissed anyone before, Icyhot? Fucking hell, what was that?!”

Of course this was bound to be expected— the angry gremlin in his natural behavior. You and Todoroki exchanged a look which held a thousand questions before you felt your wrist being caught by a much warmer palm, and eventually, you were yanked straight into Bakugou’s chest (not that you were complaining.) “Open your damn eyes and look, this how you fucking kiss a woman, dipshit.” The sound of his voice roaring against your eardrum made you flinch in the nicest way possible. Bakugou naturally made himself at ease all while maintaining his gaze upon Todoroki who was looking at him in return with a noticeable disdain in his eyes.

Bakugou was challenging him in a way, he perfectly knew that Todoroki was observing his every move, hence why he took the liberty to let his palm roam over the curve of your derrière as a way to taunt him. However, the taunt didn’t last too long not to make you feel uncomfortable. He quickly settled one of his hand on the small of your back (to maintain you as close to him as humanly possible) whilst his other hand was set upon your neck. He didn’t waste any more time and went straight to business.

Bakugou’s kiss was, as expected, a vivid contrast compared to Todoroki’s kiss. While Todoroki’s felt hesitant, caring, sweet… Bakugou’s kiss was rough around the edges and his sole purpose was to make your knees weak. Once he crashed his lips upon yours, he immediately swiped his tongue over the surface of your bottom lip, demanding immediate access to your mouth. You knew better than to upset Bakugou so you pleased and allowed his tongue to explore your mouth— your tongue was at his mercy for a few instants before finding a steady rhythm for you two. His presence was overwhelming— his smell, how close you were to him with nowhere to escape, his mouth, his tongue, everything caused you to rightfully let a moan escape into the kiss. At the sound of it, Todoroki’s eyes widened while Bakugou smirked into the kiss, he knew he made a point. You, in return, started to tug at his blonde hair— the rough atmosphere of the kiss affected your actions as well. Just prior to breaking the kiss, Bakugou’s teeth dug into your bottom lip and applied a few pressures while you were looking at him with pleading eyes to continue. Once he got what we wanted, he ended the kiss with a surprisingly soft peck upon your lips.

With his hand still settled on the small of your back, Bakugou turned to Todoroki’s direction and offered him his biggest smirk to show his secret victory. You were left breathless by the kiss, a series of uneven hot breaths crashed down onto Bakugou’s skin. 

If anyone were to walk in your hotel room, they would be able to feel and even touch the graduating tension in the air which almost felt agonizing. The tension was mostly radiating off of the two men, a silent battle for dominance had been declared through glances, holders of pure will to outbest the other. 

Todoroki observed the scene on his chair, and unbeknownst to him, Bakugou had indirectly offered him the best seat in the room to watch the manifestation of his talents. An almost inaudible sigh left Todoroki’s lips which translated into a sign of discontentment. “Y/N, come here.” The tone was strict, cold even, and you felt obligated to do as told. 

Detaching yourself from Bakugou’s embrace (you could tell he didn’t want to let you go judging from how his palm lingered on your back), you stepped away and made your way to Todoroki, a quizzical look noticeable in the reflect of your eyes. “What now?” You asked. Todoroki gestured to his lap and you knew what it meant, it was a speech without any word necessary. 

Paradoxically enough, Bakugou stared at the scenery in front of him in pure silence, and although it was very unlike him, he was mimicking Todoroki’s actions earlier on- he wanted to witness how Shoto was going to respond to his own deeds. 

You placed your hands over Todoroki’s shoulders to gain stability before sitting on his lap, it was a foreign feeling, but goodness, it was already addicting as hell and you were not interested in finding a cure. Both of Shoto’s hands crawled on the same spot where Bakugou’s hands used to linger just a few moments ago, you understood rather quickly that he was using his own methods against him. You were the center of Todoroki’s attention, his gaze graced your frame and he was loving the sound of your uneven breath, he wondered if he could make your respiration even more irregular.

He paid no mind to mind to the silent Bakugou who was already fuming in his corner as Shoto delivered a succession of pecks on the delicate flesh of your neck, and you tilted your head just enough to let him play on a wider surface. He traded the pecks for a few daring bites on certain areas, he needed to find your weak spot. “A-Ah... Shoto!” the sound of his name rolling off your tongue coated in such bliss was enough for him to curve his lips into a smirk. 

It was a brief moment of peace before he dug his teeth on the same spot and you failed to prevent any whimpers from coming out by biting your lower lip. He knew you were restricting yourself, prisoning these beautiful sounds of ecstasy, and he didn’t like any of it. He focused on your lower lip and rubbed the oh so soft surface with the pad of his thumb to prevent your from biting it, and thus, keeping your sounds of pleasure to yourself. 

“Don’t be shy, love. I’m pretty sure both Bakugou and I can agree on the fact that the little sounds you’re making are too divine to be hushed. Will you be a good girl and let us hear the sounds you’re making?” It was as if his voice was coated with honey, just his voice alone was enough to make you feel weak, and if you paid enough attention, you were pretty sure he purposefully blew a fit of cold air onto the skin of your neck. “Yes, please... I’ll be good, so good.” From that moment you knew you were at his mercy and he enjoyed every second of it. “You’re such a good girl for us.”

And so he continued, but it was rougher this time, a harsh contrast compared to his hesitant kiss from just a few moments ago. His teeth dug into the flesh of your skin harder this time, the sole purpose of leaving a mark on your crimson colored flesh was haunting his mind. To accomplish said purpose, Todoroki alternated between biting motions and a few swipes of his tongue on the newly bruised skin. The whimpers coming out of your mouth shamelessly only added fuel to his fire. He knew what he was doing, and you knew just how sensitive this particular area could get. 

Once he judged it was enough, he delivered a few pecks on the love bites, a way to kiss his art into your skin. “You’re so perfect, love, so perfect with my name written over your skin.” He whispered between kisses. Your head was thrown back, fingers grasping at the roots of his hair, your mouth agape- your whole body language testified of the addictive effect he had on you.

Such bliss couldn’t last for long, and quickly enough, another voice was being heard, a roar even. “Oi, oi, oi! Don’t even think for a single fucking second that you can have her all to yourself, half and half bastard.” It was almost a miracle that Bakugou had observed you in silence, but as expected, patience was nowhere near his forte. He had already crossed his limit long before you sat on Todoroki’s laps. Bakugou’s eyes were strictly focused on your frame, he was completely under your spell after observing how your chest would rise and fall unevenly to grasp any ounce of oxygen. 

Your knees felt weak already, you could only stare at Bakugou and silently ask him to continue, to make you feel even weaker, to make you experience pure bliss. You wanted to say his name, it was right on the tip of your tongue, but as you observed his figure reducing more and more the space between the two of you, you just admired him in silence. 

“Hah? What’re you looking at, brat? You want more? Is that it? You want fucking more? Say no more.” You should’ve known that the wicked smirk plastered upon his face was a pre-indicator of what was bound to happen. He lifted you off of Todoroki’s lap, the latter frowned a bit at the lack of your presence on him, and carried you to the bed before dropping you on the mattress. Todoroki was quick to follow from behind and stood right next to Bakugou, his hands already busy taking off his jacket and unbuttoning the first button of his evening shirt. “I’m sure that Bakugou and I can find a little agreement. After all, we can share, correct?” Todoroki’s rhetorical question found its answer once Bakugou let a discreet chuckle escape from his mouth after throwing his jacket God knows where and messily undoing his tie. “We’re gonna take real fucking good take care of you, baby girl.”

You were refraining yourself from already touching you, it took all the strength in the world not to give in to the most passionate temptations. But deep down, you already knew you were bound to be overwhelmed by pure bliss judging by how they were looking at you. You could only hum in response, unsure of how your voice would have sounded under the heavy influence of desire. 

Bakugou made the first move, after all, his poor soul felt left alone when Todoroki overwhelmed you with pecks and bites. He crawled over you, his knees were on each side of your waist, his hands however, assured total domination- his right hand clutched your wrists now pinned above your hand while his left palm settled by force on your throat, needless to say, the pressure was already applied on your windpipe. “You wanna’ play that game with me, hah?! Let Icyhot have all of you to himself and I got fucking nothing in return? Babygirl, I don’t watch, I fucking play.” It was too ferocious to be qualified as a whisper, and yet, when Bakugou pronounced the last bits of his sentence right in the shell of your ear, you felt like you were floating in pure bliss. “Answer me.” His grip on your throat felt a bit tighter. “P-Please... Ju-Just do whatever you want... With my body.” The lack of oxygen felt agonizing, you were deprived of fresh air and you were laying on the bed while Bakugou exuded pure confidence and domination, an aura so thick, you wished you could’ve touched it. “That’s my babygirl.” 

As Bakugou’s lips crashed onto yours, forcing its tongue into your mouth while maintaining the right amount of pressure on your throat to offer you a panorama of new sensations, Todoroki had already gotten rid of his shirt. If you paid close attention, you could see shy flames on his shoulders, he was absolutely adoring the scenery unfolding before him. Everything about you filled his senses, the sight of you giving in to Bakugou was nothing short of divine, the whimpers leaving your mouth in cascade whether the reason was the lack of air or the fierceness of Bakugou’s intentions was the sweetest melody he had ever heard. Everything was perfect. 

You felt the oxygen become one with your body again once Bakugou broke the kiss and allowed his hand to travel from your neck down to your chest, but his eyes were never leaving yours. He wanted to watch you come undone under his touch, he swore it to himself.

“I’ll take the bottom half. Icyhot, I don’t give a damn about what you do, just don’t fucking interrupt me.” His eyes were already set on the prize, your heat in all its glory. Shoto said nothing in response, you were the holder of all his undivided attention. As Bakugou took a firm grasp of your thighs, opening the way to his newfound purpose, Todoroki took over the top half of your body- he started by planting a succession of pecks from your lips down to your collarbone, passing by your neck, and each kiss was amplified by the cold air he was blowing on the surface of your skin. The contrast in temperature cause you to allow a few whimpers to escape, you already knew you craved for more, it was a way of manifesting it.

 “You won’t need that, will you, love?”  He said while pointing at your shirt, as his index was already hooking the fabric. It was a rhetorical question of course, you simply answered by humming. Your silent response was the only thing necessary for Shoto to send your shirt flying somewhere in the room. He continued his trail of kisses down to the valley of your breasts, the same cold air following him as he went.

Bakugou, on the other one hand, had already gotten rid off your skirt, but not before letting his palms explore the generous cheeks hidden underneath it, and eventually, leaving a slap right on this area which caused you to yelp in surprise. The pad of his thumb was already brushing against the surface of the fabric, oh what a pleasure it was when he felt the sensation of humidity coming through your underwear. A sensation so good, so addicting, so divine that it brought a sly grin to his face. “Already so wet for us, babygirl? You’re not wasting your damn time, hah?” Your skin was burning under his touch, you could already feel the chills running down your spine and he hadn’t even taken off your underwear yet. 

Todoroki took the strap of your bra between his thumb and index, and much to your suprise, he used the right amount of his quirk to burn the fabric and applied the same treatment to the other strap. Before you could even protest about the poor outcome of your bra, he planted his lips on your own to keep you quiet. Now, he focused his attention to your breasts and the bits of clothing left which prevented the upper half of your body from being fully exposed. He took the opportunity given by Bakugou who had gotten rid of your underwear which made you arch your back to unclip your bra. There was nothing stopping him now. He let his gaze fell on you, so full of adoration, while he leaned down and caught the last piece of fabric remaining of your bra between his teeth. His eyes held so much envy, so much desires which reciprocated in the reflect of your own orbs. 

Shoto threw your bra out of his mouth, and there you were- your body bare in all its glory. “Fuck, you’re so perfect...” He whispered right against your chest, causing you to let out a sigh you didn’t even know you were holding. He used his mother’s inherited side to trace the contour of your breasts, he knew he was going to earn a moan in return and he was so please to hear such a sinful melody at the clash of his cold fingers against your burning skin. His thumb and his index worked in harmony to twist the bud of your nipple and overwhelm it by Shoto’s cold touch while his tongue delivering hot saliva on your skin was already doing wonders on your other breast, a perfect balance between cold and hot which made your arousal erupt even more and someone was quick to notice...

“Oi, doll face, focus on me, not on this goddamn fucker. Don’t you feel so fucking good when I touch you like that, hah?” His burning jealousy amplified the voracity of his deeds. Every single one of his touch served the purpose of pleasuring you, but also outdo Todoroki’s touches. He needed to be the best at everything, including making you melt under his touch. You struggled to keep your eyes open, the desire to close your eyes and let your body attract all the attention while basking in pure bliss was too strong and yet, Bakugou’s voice roared into your mind, you couldn’t help but lay your eyes on him through half-closed lids. 

Once he knew he was the bearer of all your attention, he put his body and mind to work. Both of his hands planted your thighs on each side of his body, you felt too weak to move under his touch and did not dare resist the pressure. You whined in advance because you knew what was coming- and boy, did he look good with his face buried between your thighs. 

One long, sharp, vertical lick was all it took to let yet another moan escape your lips once more, and to Bakugou, it was the best reward. The heat of his tongue responded to the heat of your core, it was pure harmony. He licked the your core over and over again, tasting you, loving you, worshipping you even. One time he left lingering kisses to the side of your core, another time he was left licking motions all over your folds because your taste was the best thing he had ever felt. His motions echoed to your whines and moans, he was sure of hearing a sinful melody each time his tongue entered in contact with your skin.

“Keep making these noises for me, don’t be fucking shy.” His hot breath on the center of your heat embraced perfectly the succession of his actions, “Y-Yes... P-Please, I want... I need more.” Bakugou couldn’t help but let a low chuckle leave his lips, in response to your needy attitude, he left a harsh slap on the surface of your butt, to which you whined loudly in response. “Such a fucking filthy mouth you have there, hah?” He smiled to himself, knowing perfectly that what he was about to do was bound to leave you as a whimpering mess. Without any warning, he slid two of his fingers inside your core, and fuck, you were tight. His thumb was brushing against your sweet bundle of nerves which had already been cherished by Bakugou’s tongue earlier. 

You clutched the sheets of the bed to release some of the buildup pressure inside, it was as if a tornado, a volcano and a firework were exploding at the same time in your stomach, each of them resulting in a series of whimpers and moans at the overstimulation. Your lids were shut close already, yet, they kept fluttering over the invisible crimson touches left by both Todoroki and Bakugou.

Speaking over Todoroki, he was tasting you in such a different way as he started to get the grip of Bakugou’s mechanic. His mind kept roaming and roaming, he knew that just one mark on your neck was not quite enough and he needed to beat Bakugou at his own game- he positioned himself right over your right breast and blew a fit of fresh air, causing him to smile at himself for being the reason of such a reaction, and dug his teeth into your flesh. Motivated by the the way you kept tugging at his hair, he kept biting the same area over and over again until sucking your flesh just enough to create yet another love bite over your breast, such an intimate area, isn’t it? And now his whole name was written on it. 

“B-Bakugou... I can’t take it... Ahh! Anymore, please, please...” His fingers weren’t enough anymore, you were pleading his name, begging him to become one with you because you were unsure as to how you were going to keep the unleashed pressure within you ruin you. “So eager for my fucking cock, aren’t you?! You’re gonna count with me each inch entering your fucking cunt, got it?” You were willing to do anything at this point- Todoroki’s bites and his cold touch, Bakugou’s fingers and tongue, it made you fill dizzy but you knew, deep down, you were slowly approaching a pure state of bliss. “Yes... Yes I will.”

For his own purpose, Bakugou took his fingers off your core and flipped you on your stomach so you could be on all fours. You were giving him the view of worthy of a masterpiece: the crimson colored marks on your butt cheeks, the vivid rosy tone of your dripping core, oh he wanted all of you. “Love, don’t you forget that I’m here too, right? Open your pretty mouth for me.” You did as Todoroki preached, opening your mouth for him to stick his index in there. “Suck.” he commanded, to which you obliged by creating hollows in your cheeks and embrace his finger around your tongue, this feeling was beyond perfect, beyond the wildest fantasies his imagination had to offer. He could only let his subconsciousness roam about how his cock would feel around your perfectly pouted lips.

Bakugou’s hands gripped your hips tightly, his fingers turning white in the process while your flesh adopted a reddish tone in response. With the use of the pad of his thumb, he spread the pre-cum leaking all over his length, and so it began: the first inch. “One.”, it sounded more like an order than a statement, “...One.” you echoed, your response didn’t come quick enough to Bakugou’s liking, making you earn a harsh slap on your cheeks in return. Then another inch “Two.” , another faint sound coming from your lips “T-Two...”, yet another slap on your abused flesh. And so it went on, the process remained the same- another inch, another whisper escaping your mouth between sobs, another spank. 

On the other side of the bed, Todoroki was stroking his own length at the sight before him. You were on the brim of tears, and Bakugou didn’t show any mercy regarding your current state. “I’m sorry, her mouth is going to be full soon, she won’t have room to count out for you.” Bakugou grunted in response to Todoroki’s taunt. His strokes became gradually faster, like a crescendo if you will. His other hand, however, was placed right underneath your jaw to give you some support and your mouth was already open in anticipation for what was bound to happen. 

With his hand to keep your jaw steady, you welcomed Todoroki’s lenght into your mouth and he automatically let a groan as the tip of your tongue caressed his sensitive tip. You imagined how rewarding it must have felt for them to hear your own moans and whimpers because hearing Todoroki’s moan felt like a blessing to your eardrums.

Your tongue circled around his cock, your hand was pumping his length, and Todoroki wondered if this is what heaven looked and felt like. Your whimpers were hushed by the presence of his member in your mouth, but somehow, even these half silenced sounds of pleasure sounded even better to his ears. He felt his lids shut close under the miracle work of your tongue while his hand lingered in your hair to motivate you to keep going.

Bakugou, frustrated by this change of plans due to Todoroki’s own personal pleasure, slid the entirety of his phallus into you abruptly. The shock caused you to remove Shoto’s member from your mouth momentarily to catch your breath and release yet another whine before pleasuring Todoroki again. That came as a surprise to no one, not even Shoto himself, but Bakugou’s pace was rough and almost animalistic. 

The sound of his testicles clapping against your flesh testified of the pace and yet, it felt so enticing. Bakugou was not so vocal, but he did leave his fair share of grunts as he buried himself into you more and more until reaching your cervix. It was too much, your core was burning, hell your whole body was on fire. The tears that threatened to fall had put their threat to execution, you knew you were close, the overstimulation was getting the best of you leaving you in a whimpering, trembling mess. 

You continued to stroke Shoto’s length with your tongue, but his need to take control took over him. The same hand that rested in your hair suddenly took a firm grasp of your hair and he thrusted himself into your mouth and from there, his grunts became more repetitive. Truthfully, it was the only push he needed to bring him over the edge, the previous work of your tongue had put him under a spell. A spell he never wanted to wake up from. He knew what was coming, you felt it too but how the tip of his phallus was tickling your throat deeper and deeper. 

Shoto didn’t even notice the small flames making their apparition on the blades of his collarbone, meaning that it was finally time for him to cum. He set your mouth free and hinted his length towards your chest, letting the drips of cum color your skin, and allowed the most magical moan to leave his already parted lips in satisfaction. “Love, look what you fucking did to me. You’re so beautiful, so beautiful with my cum all over you.” Your first instinct was to fill your lungs with oxygen, something so common yet it was cruelly needed. You looked through your lashes at Shoto with pleading eyes while he looked at you with a glimpse of adoration in his. His digit was carefully wiping the excess of cum leaking down your chin to place it right into your mouth. He could only stare in awe at the sight of you tasting him. He felt so full, and fulfilled. He was finally at peace, soaking in pure bliss.  

The grasp Bakugou was holding over your hips became even harsher, which you though was impossible just a few seconds before. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He grunted, trying to keep his volume at bay by digging his teeth into his lower lip but it was all too much to be contained. He knew his climax was close, so close that he could picture it if he closed his eyes just for a second. Bakugou’s name fell on your lips like a forbidden prayer, his name had turned into the only thing you were able to say. “I-...Ah! Inside, inside, fuck, please...”, you felt a wave of pleasure taking over your body, a pleasure so intense, no word could have done it justice. Oh well, that was the sole indication he needed to hear before digging his nails into your sides, causing you to arch your back and bite the sheets, already preventing the cascade of whimpers from echoing in the room. “Fucking hell... Cum with me, now.”

 With one last thrust, Bakugou came within you, his face was facing the ceiling as he came undone with you. His cum slid within you and in return, your body thanked him by letting your own juice flow all over his length. 

Silence invaded the room. No more grunts, no more moans, no more cries. Pure silence inhabited by the uneven breaths of three protagonists who had just touched heaven by the tip of their fingers. Three victims of passion.

Bakugou pulled out of you, earning a whimper in return at the sudden feeling of vacuity. Your legs were shaking, and you secretly thanked every God for allowing you to stay relatively steady on all fours for this long and be able to endure the bestial-like pace of Bakugou. Needless to say, you were panting, you mouth was agape and you were crying for air. Your body immediately crashed onto the mattress, the soft feeling of the sheets enveloping your skin after reaching heaven made you feel as if you were floating on a cloud.

Bakugou and Todoroki shared a look, a small grin even, before crashing down onto the mattress next to you. You were unable to move, your mind was comparable to a wild blur as a result of your orgasm. A rush of words flew through your air but absolutely none of them was powerful and meaningful enough to qualify how you were feeling. At peace? No, not strong enough. Full? Nope, did not carry enough meaning. It was a unique feeling, worthy of all the praises in the world. 

Todoroki draped an arm over your waist and left a trail of kisses upon the flesh of your shoulder, a silent way to thank you for allowing him to experience heaven in a rush. Bakugou, on the other one hand, was facing your back and allowed his index to draw invisible patterns on the skin of your back. Paradoxically enough, the silence carried more words and emotions than an actual speech. Until...

“So... Um, about the mission?”

[catxsnow]

TIM DRAKE SMUT ALPHABET

I’m bored so I complied all the Tim smut alphabet requests that I got several weeks back into one post so it’s easier to read lol. None of these are new, they’ve all been posted before, just making it for you new comers! 

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Tim likes to have a shower with you after. There’s nothing more sensual to him than washing each other’s bodies. The mix of sweat and cum that you guys made together, are washed away together. He just wants to take care of you at all times.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Your favourite body part of his is his back. He’s got the nicest, muscular back and it’s the sole reason that you always offer to give him massages (which nearly always end up with sex)

His favorite of yours is lips/mouth. He loves kissing you, the sounds that you make, and mostly when their wrapped around his dick.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

As I said in the body part ^ Tim loves your mouth and he sure as fuck loves to cum in it. There’s nothing sexier to him than watching you swallow his load. It’s his favourite place to cum.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Tim once jacked off while he was out on patrol. You begged him all evening to stay home and he promised he wouldn’t be long. That was a lie, he had been out all night and you needed him. So, you sent him a rather extensive video of you pleasuring yourself and he couldn’t take the wait to get back across the city to see you.

E = Experience 

Tim knows what he’s doing, but he hasn’t been with that many people. He’s mostly learned and adapted to what you like rather than base what he knows off of his past. It’s more important to specialize in exactly what feels good for you rather than what he assumes you like. 

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Tim’s favourite is the face off (idk what it’s actually called sorry) When he’s sitting up and you’re riding his cock. He loves this because he get’s to have that closeness to you and it’s more sensual. It’s a versatile position - the bed, his office chair, the batcave chair, the training mat - His office chair.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.

Depends on the location. In his room? Tim will crack a joke here and there just to keep you entertained. In his office though, boy oh boy is he completely different. Tim’s already got his big boss attitude from his long day’s work and he definitely keeps it up with you. Bossy Tim is a whole new level of hot. 

H = Harmony (do they like music in the background?)

If he’s in his room, he’ll put some music on in the background. Nothing with lyrics, just instrumentals. Never too loud either, he wants to hear you more than he wants to hear the music. However, if any of his brother’s are staying in the same house as him, he always turns the music up loud enough to drown out your sounds. No way is he letting his brother’s know just how hot you sound when he’s fucking you.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Tim’s pretty romantic. He doesn’t want to fuck you like you’re some kind of whore (but enjoys it on the occasion). He’d rather praise you and enjoy how close the two of you are.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Since dating you, Tim doesn’t jack off very often. He only ever does if you’re apart and you ask him for a video of him. Just because Tim doesn’t feel the need to masturbate while he’s away doesn’t mean the same for you. You’re begging him through text and telling him how much you miss his cock in you. Tim makes sure he’s extra vocal as he’s thinking about you sucking him off rather than only having his hand.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Tim likes some light bondage. He loves when your hands are tied up and you can’t aid to your own pleasure (even though he does a good enough job on his own). Nothing too crazy. He hates when you do it to him though, Tim needs to have his hands on you at all times.

Orgasm control. He doesn’t pull this very often but he’ll make you wait to cum. If you cum without him saying, he’ll go through it again and again until you get it right.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

Like I said in my previous post, he’ll fuck you in his office. It might not be the most comfortable place, but there’s no better feeling that having you bent over his desk while he’s pounding into you. He sound proofed his office just so you didn’t have to hold back your moans.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Tim see’s you in lingerie and he’s done for. He think’s it’s unbelievably sexy and he won’t waste a second to fuck you without taking it off. The worst is when you send him a picture of you in it while he’s at work. Half the time he leaves the building just to show you how hard you make him.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Tim hates the idea of cuckholding. Literally the idea of another man fucking you while he just watches is his worst nightmare. He’s the only one allowed to bring you pleasure. Tim wouldn’t be opposed to a threesome though

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He prefers to receive. Tim loves getting head from you. However, he also loves when you sit on his face too and boy is he good at it. Tim’s learned just the right combo of licking and sucking. You put a kink in his neck one time from it and Bruce questioned what had happened. Thank god he was a great liar.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Tim’s more slow and hard. He doesn’t want to rush things with you but he wants to slam his hips so hard that you’re seeing spots. He’s more about getting as deep as he can rather than as fast as he can.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

He’s not a huge fan. Tim likes to prolong fucking you when he can, so when you guys are rushed, he knows that he’s not doing his best performance. He’ll do them when need be but it’s not his ideal time.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Look all I’m saying is that Tim would, has, and will fuck you in his WE office. It’s his company and he can do as he pleases in his building.

Tim has his classic positions that he preferences but he is willing to try new things if you bring it up.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Tim can go a lot of rounds, like a lot. However, he doesn’t last particularly long. He loves being inside you, and the pleasure of it all is sometimes just too much for him to handle. He never quits until you’re tired though - he could go all night if you wished. 

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

Tim doesn’t own toys for himself but he bought some for you. He encourages you to use them when he’s away on missions and he nearly cums in his pants when you send a lengthy video of you using them. He uses them in bed occasionally too if he’s on the mood to over stimulate.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He teases you just enough to get frustrated. Tim knows your limits better than anyone else, he knows when you’re on the edge of cumming and he knows exactly when to stop. He’ll deny your orgasm but if he does it more than once then he’ll make it up to you for the rest of the night.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

He’s not that loud. Tim will express how he’s feeling rather than making noises. He’s king of dirty talk which came out of nowhere with how awkward he can be. Tim constantly praises you for what you do and you know if you get a long moan out of him then you’re doing one hell of a good job.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

As CEO of WE, he had important business dinners he attended to and most times you went with him.  Tim was feeling ridiculously bold one night. You guys saw side by side and not even ten minutes into the night he was slipping his hand between your thighs and teasing you through your underwear. It was the first time that you had worn a short dress to the dinner meeting and you regretted it. Tim never brought you close enough to an orgasm but the endless teasing all night had led to the most intense sex you ever had with him.

X = X-marks the spot (where’s their favourite place to give/receive hickies)

Tim loves to leave them all over his chest. He knows they’re there, but no one else does. He only wants you and him to see the marks he leaves on you. As much as you like leaving them where everyone can see, he’s got a multi-billion dollar company to run and people already see him as childish they don’t need another excuse. You settle for right where the edge of his suit would be, sometimes they just barely peak out.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Tim can fuck as much as he wants. He’s not constantly horny, but if you’re in the mood then he’s not gonna deny it. Tim’s sex drive isn’t intense, but he can’t go over a week without you either, he’ll go crazy.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Depends. Tim’s used to being awake for a while so if he needs to stay up afterwards he can. However, he loves falling asleep with you in his arms right afterwards if he can Cockwarming maybe. 

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #148: Jaguar Warrior

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the fast and the furryous Jaguar Warrior, the vessel for an anime girl, and to a lesser extent, a god. Taiga is a Totem Warrior Barbarian for some animal instincts, and a Drunken Master Monk to turn her unorthodox fighting style into a force to be reckoned with.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Mr. Break Yo Meta

Race and Background

Taiga’s still mostly Human (er, servant), and we’ll use the variant rules, because feats are fun. This gives you +1 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom, Animal Handling proficiency to watch over Quetz’s pets, and the Mobile feat for ten feet of extra movement speed and the ability to ignore attacks of opportunity from creatures you hit.

You’re technically on the same side as Quetz for this one, so that makes you a Goddess Alliance Legionnaire too, giving you proficiency with Athletics and Intimidation. 

Ability Scores

You definitely have some force behind your strikes, but you’re also really mobile, so we’ll start with Dexterity being highest. You’re really mobile, but you also have some force behind your strikes, so Strength is next. Your power partially comes from being a jaguar, so your Wisdom should be next. Your Constitution isn’t bad either- anyone who can survive a direct blow from Quetz is tough. Your Charisma isn’t amazing- you’re quick with a joke, but your main audience isn’t a big fan. Finally, dump Intelligence.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: Starting as a barbarian would give you a lot more HP, but you only get the first Unarmored Defense you come across, and we like basing our AC off of Dexterity and Wisdom more than constitution. Now you can wear your fancy outfits without worrying too much about dying.

While you’re here though you also get Martial Arts, giving you a baseline of 1d4 damage when using monk weapons. You can also use dexterity instead of strength when using monk weapons, and if you attack with your main action you can make an unarmed attack as a bonus action.

You also gain proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as Acrobatics and Stealth.

2. Barbarian 1: Barbarian gives us our real meat an potatoes of combat, with a Rage that you can activate as a bonus action for up to one minute, or until the fighting stops. Currently you can rage twice per long rest, but that will change as you level up. 

While raging, you get advantage on strength checks and saves, deal extra damage with strength-based attacks, and have resistance to physical damage.

You also get another Unarmored Defense, but it doesn’t stack with the first, so it’s not that important.

3. Barbarian 2: Your Reckless Attacks make you a terror on the battlefield, giving you advantage on your attacks for a turn in exchange for other creatures having advantage against you for the next round.

You also get a Danger Sense, giving you advantage on dexterity saves against things you can see. You’ll really want to avoid that fireball, burnt fur smells terrible, trust me. 

4. Barbarian 3: While you get your power from being a Jaguar Warrior you don’t actually turn into a big cat, so Totem Warrior is probably your best option. When you take the subclass, you become a Spirit Seeker, letting you cast Beast Sense and Speak with Animals as rituals. You also gain a Tiger Totem Spirit, adding 10 feet to your long jump distance and 3 feet to your high jump. Cats got ups. 

Finally, you get Primal Knowledge as well, giving you proficiency with Nature checks. You are literally an animal, you know a thing or two about animals.

5. Barbarian 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Dexterity for more accurate attacks and a higher AC.

6. Barbarian 5: Fifth level barbarians get an Extra Attack each attack action, letting you attack twice per action or three times with your bonus action. You also get Fast Movement, increasing your movement speed by 10 feet.

7. Monk 2: Going back to monk gives you Ki points equal to your monk level each short rest. You can spend them to attack twice, dodge, disengage, or dash on your bonus action. 

You also get Unarmored Movement, increasing your speed by another 10 feet, and growing as you level up.

8. Monk 3: Drunken Masters have surprisingly little to do with actual alcohol, and much more to do with acting drunk, which you do every day. You get proficiency with the Performance skill, as well as a Drunken Technique when you use your Flurry of Blows. Attacking twice with your bonus action now comes with the benefits of disengaging, and your walking speed increases by yet another 10 feet.

You can also Deflect Missiles as a reaction, blocking damage from an arrow or thrown weapon. If you reduce it to zero, you can also spend a ki point to throw it at another creature.

9. Monk 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Strength for stronger rage attacks. You can also Slow Fall as a reaction, reducing falling damage thanks to landing on your feet.

You can also spend ki as an action for Quickened Healing for a bit of spirit origin correction.

10. Barbarian 6: Going back into barbarian gives you the Aspect of the Beast, though unfortunately Tiger’s kind of useless to us at this point. Grab Wolf instead for fast paced tracking and normal paced stealthing while traveling. 

11. Barbarian 7: Seventh level barbarians get a Feral Instinct, giving you advantage on initiative rolls. You also can ignore being surprised if you rage at the start of combat. If you’re going to overreact in a comedic fashion, it’s best not to overstay your welcome.

You also gain an Instinctive Pounce, letting you move up to half your speed when you enter a rage. Your base speed is currently 60 feet, so that’s not a small jump.

12. Barbarian 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Strength so your rage attacks can match your non-rage attacks, and to further increase the power of your ups.

13. Barbarian 9: Ninth level barbs get a Brutal Critical, giving you an extra die of damage when you deal a critical hit to a creature. You’ve got four attacks per turn with advantage, it’ll happen at some point.

14. Monk 5: Fifth level monks get an extra attack you can’t use, but they also get a Stunning Strike by spending a ki point to force a constitution save (dc 8+wis mod +proficiency) on a creature they’ve hit. On a failure, that creature is then stunned for a round, giving you free advantage against them without having to be reckless about it.

You can also spend ki points on your Focused Aim to try and turn a missed attack into a hit, with each ki point spent adding 2 to the attack roll.

15. Monk 6: Our last round of monk gives you Ki-Empowered Strikes, making your unarmed attacks magical for overcoming resistances. Like half the people you fight in Babylonia are some kind of god, that’ll be useful. You also gain a Tipsy Sway, letting you stand up from being knocked prone for only 5′ of movement and spend ki to redirect attacks that miss you, sending them towards another nearby creature instead as a reaction.

16. Barbarian 10: Tenth level totbars are Spirit Walkers, letting you Commune with Nature as a ritual, giving you near info about the area around you through your Nagual. 

You also get another round of Primal Knowledge for Survival proficiency.

17. Barbarian 11: Your Relentless Rage lets you make a DC 10 constitution save when you drop to 0 hp to try and stick around at 1 hp again. Each time you succeed, the DC goes up by 5. After a long rest, the DC resets. Do you want guts? Cus this is how you get guts.

18. Barbarian 12: You may have noticed by now that we haven’t even touched your final ascension. Well no longer! Use your final ASI to become a Master of Disguise, bumping up your charisma score by one, giving you proficiency with the disguise kit, and letting you make a disguise after spending an hour watching a creature and eight hours crafting the disguise. The important thing here is that you can don the disguise in 1 action, letting you quickly change into your “you, but a mafia boss” disguise faster than most people can put on their armor.

19. Barbarian 13: Thirteenth level barbarians get another Brutal Critical, giving you yet another extra die of damage on critical hits.

20. Barbarian 14: Your capstone level grants you a Totemic Attunement, and while the tiger and wolf options are both cool, I think the Eagle totem option suits you the best, giving you a flying speed while raging, with the caveat that you can’t end your turn in mid-air. Before this level, you could jump 56 feet horizontally, and 20 feet vertically. Now you can jump 195 feet in any direction if you use your action and bonus action to dash.

Pros

You’ve got a base speed of 65 feet and the ability to fly for five minutes a day. You’re really, really mobile, is what I’m getting at. Heck, you’re technically better than Quetz at piledriving people, if you really wanted to go that route (don’t tell her I said that).

This also means that, similar to our other cat-themed build, you can combine point one with your burst damage for solid hit and run tactics. You can run in, hit an enemy four times with advantage and suped up crits, and run out past most people’s normal movement range with no problem. That makes you very scary for anything that lacks a ranged attack.

You also come jam packed with a lot of Utility, with plenty of skills and random little bits of knowledge to have use outside of combat.

Cons

Your Ki is very limited, stunting the amount of times you can use flurry of blows to boost your speed and power with flurry of blows.

Master of Disguise is a neat little gimmick for playing to character, but it’s not actually that good for the build. I’d either take the Tough or Resilient feats for the extra not-dying they afford.

Our two big stats for this build are Strength and Dexterity, which have a lot of overlap in their use. We easily could have just focused on dexterity and ignored the bit of damage from rage, and we’d have way more HP and AC to show for it. It’s probably not going to be a huge issue when you’re half a mile from combat anyway, but it’s still something to note.

[freetobeafcknriot]

*queues this thing into the future after months of it being in the writing oven* hello! i'm the doctor :)

for midam week 2k21, day 7: melody. (inspired by an actual, iconic scene from doom patrol season 1 episode 8! i wrote this back in april after watching that episode and started to translate it afterward. you don't need to know the show, but if you want a reference or background music or you're simply curious, here's the scene on youtube!)

Adam has always liked music. The number of songs he used to, well, scream at the top of his lungs the first years in the Cage for the sake of keeping himself some company — no matter how much Michael told him to shut up — and some memories that the archangel has grown to know by heart are proof of this. He still sings sometimes, even now.

It's mostly little bits and pieces he picks up here and there between his shifts and a trip to the grocery store, but Michael listens to him nonetheless. Adam knows it, and in a way, he has come to understand why — he can feel Michael's grace tinkle, and the whirlwind of his very core buzzing with a warm sense of calm and contentment. It's kind of the reason why he keeps doing it, keeps humming stray melodies. And to be honest, music's good for Adam, too. It makes his soul flutter uniquely, or so Michael has noticed, not without a mix of confused endearment and curiosity. It's actually normal for pretty much any human out there, but well, it's not like Michael pays attention to any soul other than the one nestled next to his grace. Like now, for instance, while they sit in comfortable silence, watching a TV series that even Michael seems to be fairly interested in. Adam shifts for a bit, eyes on the screen, where the Negative Man has just started, to his surprise given what kind of character he is, to sing. And sure, it's probably because of the context and the lyrics and the bubbling crescendo of good feelings in his body but—the point is, that suddenly, from his side of the bond, Michael hears him think ‘what the hell’. Then he stands up and holds his hand out to the archangel. "Alright, come here," Adam says, eyes expectant and a tad bit nervous. A good kind of nervous though, Michael notes, studying him with furrowed brows. It doesn't take him much to understand what exactly Adam is asking for, and no matter how much he is always willing to humor him if there is anything that the archangel Michael has never done that is dancing. So he shifts his gaze from Adam's outstretched hand up to his face and pointedly says, "I think I'll pass, kid." Michael's lips are pursued in a deadpanned, but not an unamused or grumpy line, and that's enough for Adam to nudge him. Not to mention, he's most certainly not exposing himself to take no for an answer. "Oh, come on, old man," Adam presses, idly and unafraid to clash with Michael's stubbornness, the corners of his lips lifted upwards and his blue irises alight with something akin to mischief. "It'll be fun!" "Adam, I don't dance." "Just this once?" Michael quirks an eyebrow. Not much, but it still holds one hell of a whirlwind of expressions and gives Adam the impression to be looked at through and thorough — he is... bubbly, content, and a billion different little human things. And, while on the TV screen the main character's bandages start to disappear, making him look human again for the first time after decades, his soul's ringing feels a little softer. With an exasperated sigh, Michael eventually takes Adam's hand and stands up in a swift motion. "Just this once." Adam grins, cheery and maybe just a little smug. From this up close — aside from their breaths meeting and the buzzing sensation of skin against faux skin — the flow of his warm-colored mirth pulses more clearly than before. It's tangible; radiant.

(As if Michael didn't love him enough already.) ‘You're insufferable.’ Michael's grace whispers, but the tacit affection threaded within the words spoken over their bond is so evident that it glimmers in his apparition's eyes, and Adam, for the life of him, can't help but blush. Not too much alright, but, if only to ignore the light heat rising to his cheeks and for the sake of his so-called insufferableness, he shrugs in a what can you do kind of way and says, "Heh, you like me anyway and you know it." Michael looks him dead in the eyes. "Do I." "Hey." Michael tilts his head with an amused glint of his grace and really, sometimes, Adam almost misses when back in the days he was about as expressive as a marble statue. Or a rock, for that matter. He shakes his head with an equally playful scoff and takes a step back, pushing the coffee table with the back of his leg in order to have a little more space. Michael looks at his movements with rapt attention, specifically when Adam shows him where to put his hands and by consequence moves a little closer. "Here, just..." Adam's murmur is slightly muffled by all the singing that is going on on the TV screen, but that doesn't make the light flustered note on his voice any less obvious, clearly. His eyes meet Michael's, and Adam takes in a breath, their noses almost touching. He finds himself feeling a little off, a little mesmerized really—but not necessarily in a bad way. His lips twitch, glimmering irises and warm blue. "...hey," he exhales. His cheeks start to hurt a little because of the amount of smiling he stupidly feels like doing right now. Michael doesn't make that kind of ache go away with a brush of his grace, he's come to associate it with the good chemicals that fizzle all over their body and the happiest his vessel — his only friend, his... Adam—can be. So, the archangel mimics the gesture, in his own way, while tracing the fabric of Adam's shirt with his fingers. "Hey yourself," he says, voice is low and deep despite the light playfulness dripping from his words. Under his touch, Adam shivers and hurries to shrug it off. "Right, so, you gotta— relax your shoulders, there. Good. Don't think, just..." Adam starts to sway a little, left and right, with growing confidence as his movements begin to follow the music. He's not in perfect sync with it, at all really, but hey, they're in their home after all! His hand is pressed against Michael's side — it tingles a bit with the echo of the buzzing, unleashed power concealed within the archangel's apparition and the thrill Adam feels blossom in his chest first — and with a light pull, it sets a playful invitation to move along. Michael does as much, if a bit stiffly and mostly to humor him, and Adam chuckles. Dancing is not much different from eating or taking a shower or a bath, to Michael, that much is clear. It's better than eating, for sure, but it's still too human, for him at least, to come naturally or even make sense, or hold some kind of appeal. Nonetheless, Adam's sensations latch onto his own in the same way their fingers entwine. They flow in through lowered veils and walls, carrying genuine amusement and happiness, and Michael finds — unsurprisingly, for the most part — easy to take them in and let himself be carried away by them. Enough for his faux body to move more fluidly, naturally even. Which is ridiculous: he's a soldier, definitely not a dancer. (The things he does for love.) "Wow, you're not that bad, you know that?" Adam chimes in, all ringing soul and silvery voice. "Very funny," Michael scoffs, a pointed look that accompanies his dry remark. "I think I'll leave you to the rest of the song now. I'll be fine for the next couple of decades." He takes a step back, lifts his arm, and twirls Adam around.　 　　People like us, we've gotta stick together, 　　Keep your head up, nothing lasts forever... Adam laughs. And he spins on his heels, too; a fluid movement before he winds his arms around Michael's shoulders and finds himself closer to him, chest to chest. (Within their shared body, between grace and soul, it feels like pure euphoria.) 　　Here's to the damned, to the lost and forgotten... Their noses brush, tenderly. And damn it, he said decades, which—okay, Adam digresses, but damn, does it make his heart flutter! Still, stubbornly and gleeful, he grins, mirroring the state of their truest beings. "Too bad, you're not leaving me at the chorus, Michael, it's literally the best part to sing along!" "I'm not singing." And that's not debatable. "Nah, I know that. But I sure as hell am!" Because listen, Adam is in no way, shape, or form the kind of guy to be, you know, a party animal or anything of the sort. But this is far from the most embarrassing, stupid thing Michael saw him do. They're well past that, thank you very much, especially when it comes to his singing. Maura and Larry's voices resonate in the room, powerful and beautiful in their unity, Adam's own promptly in tow. "We are all misfits living in a world on fireee. . .!" he sings, spreading his arms, his soul vibrant and alight. Nested around it, the grumpy old solar fire projected right in front of him fills his body with an iridescent rush of warmth. Michael doesn't sing along with him, Adam doesn't expect him to, but his eyes crinkle in that fond way of his, and his body moves along the lively melody. He's mesmerized, captivated by the human in front of him so much that if any one of them were the type, they would say that suddenly, it's like they're not even in their little living room anymore. Music does that, too, doesn't it? Bringing colors and life to the people like them, that is. 　　Sing it for the people like us — Adam entwines their fingers. They are, of course, the mirror image of one another, and fit together like puzzle pieces. He stumbles a bit on the lyrics, which to be fair he is not all that familiar with, he's mostly following the characters' lead, but it's not important. It doesn't need to be perfect. Not that Adam would care, given how Michael takes most of his attention. "They can't do nothing to you," In tune with the music and with laugher on his lips, Adam steps towards Michael. "They can't do nothing to me," Michael's grace scoffs in mirth, and amusement dances in his eyes while he takes a step himself, his hands tight around Adam's and in motion. "This is the life that we choose—" It's a happy moment, Adam's voice is as vibrant as his soul, and yet, Michael senses the echo of an unspoken promise when he sings: "This is the life that we bleed." It sinks in the threads of his grace and the line of his mouth, as the quickening rhythm tries to slither into the lessening space between them and lights up Adam's grin. They meet in the middle, and their foreheads rest against each other despite the frantic rhythm. Quicker and livelier by the second. "So throw your fits in the air. Come out," Their hands clenched around each other and the tip of their noses bump playfully, causing Adam's voice to crack with amusement and a dash of sheepishness for the proximity. "Come out if you dare!" And it doesn't take much for Michael's impossibly blue eyes to slide from Adam's own to his beaming lips. "Tonight we're gonna...!" Then the distance is no more. 　　—change forever. Adam goes stiff out of surprise for a moment. Michael, eyes closed, can feel the tangible quirk of his lips, smiling against his own. Then Adam's arms are around Michael's neck, and when they part, his heart is beating furiously and he would very much like to spare an offhand comment of any kind, but he doesn't. Larry's daydream dissolves abruptly into harsh reality; the music, the song stop. Meanwhile though, in that odd little living room, for once in their very long lives, reality is sweeter. Not idyllic or easy, but quieter; tangible. Theirs.　 　　Sing it for the people like us, the people like us.

❪　ao3．❫

[phoenixyfriend]

The “Momma Sturmvoraus was Literally Satan” AU

As requested by @spazzbot​. This AU was initially brainstormed on the GG fanworks server almost a year ago. Specifically, on the first day of 2020.

[ID: a truncated discord message by “Miss Nixy, Gay for RoboLadies” posted 01/01/2020. The message reads “I need to sleep but please for the moment consider:” and ends there.]

So. Let’s get to it.

Satan took a human form because why not see what's going on topside, live like a human, and “Oh shit is this pregnancy? This is pregnancy. Fuck, that's a tiny human. Which is now half demon. Am I supposed to take care it? Wonder if retconing this form into that Valois family was a bad idea. They do have SO much money though, I get to live like a queen. I suppose another child shouldn't hurt, it wasn't that bad. Oh, he's cute, this is actually making sense, why humans do all the sinning. Not counting dear Aaronev's murders, of course, those are just evil, but I did search out the worst of the humans to pair myself to...”

This is literally just "Tarvek and Anevka's mom was low-key Satan on a bored “let's be human for a decade or two to see what happens” jaunt, consequences happen because these kids are LITERALLY half-demon and arguably anti-Christs."

Also it's just Very Funny for Tarvek, ineffectual sexy lamp fashion twunk extraordinaire, to be an antichrist

Jeff thinks he’s pretty. Jeff keeps describing features that don’t entirely make sense. (Jeff’s canon name is Karl Thotep but they spent so long unnamed that the server collectively named them Jeff.)

This is not a crossover with anything, btw. Ambiguously Pop Culture Satan just got bored and went to have babies with a serial killer.

They’re just kids! That are vaguely demonic. So. Moreso than the rest of the Valois.

Sometimes "mom" comes back from the dead and visits Anevka and Tarvek to impart Wisdom and possibly magic lessons The rooms always smell faintly of sulfur after that...

They try to put Anevka in the machine but SHE isn't hurt and the MACHINE just melts

So that's the end of that.

It's very awkward for everyone, but the paperwork isn't too bad. It's very easy to write "incidental fire began during late-fugue experimentation, resulted in fire spreading through six rooms and several casualties, including Prince Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus."

As per @atagotiak​, “I feel like if we’re going in any way dimensional weirdness with thing, Tarvek got so good at exploring bc he could just clip through walls.”

With image provided by @thisarenotarealblog​:

Tarvek in Paris: My dead mother keeps showing up in my dreams to tell me I need to seduce my way out of my problems and also she looks like Satan. Tarvek's Voltaire-Appointed Therapist: I still don't know what that means. Just like the last five times. Tarvek: I keep telling her that I can’t seduce Colette, if seduction is that important she should get Anevka to do it.

Like he probably wouldn’t say most of that in front of any Voltaire-approved individual, but still.

Tarvek is still very good at self control but there's a Special Edge to his rants.

(Derailed in the moment to me thinking about Anevka in a sfw-but-concerningly-deadly succubus getup, because... yeah.)

Aaronev dies and goes to hell and his dead wife is just there like "hi! Time to be tortured for eternity!" He wasn't a good husband so. He can't exactly sentimentalize his way out.

“In the sexy way?” “... not for you, no.”

Mostly I just want the BULLSHIT that is "Storm Mom was actually just Satan getting bored and going on vacation as a retconned Valois girl, the kids are half-demons and sometimes it Shows."

To clarify: the Satan bit isn't the retcon. Grandma used to have one daughter. Now there are two. (Seffie and Martellus's mother doesn't remember being an only child, but sometimes...)

Satan retconned a new daughter in, which included a Valid Valois Venusian Vestment, so the blood tests play out.

The subtle signs of wrongness would be fun too. Anevka tends to smile a bit too wide and sharp for a human face. Inexplicable uneasiness, here you can’t point at any specific thing that’s wrong but it’s uncomfortable. Uncanny valley prettiness, almost like the porcelain she became in other timelines. Skin isn’t supposed to be that smooth.

My brain's pre-nap contribution at that point was "Satan's pronouns when not pretending to Human are sin/sinself" which is! Certainly a thing.

Tarvek, at some nebulous future point: I mean, your ancestors were monsters, but my dad was a serial killer and my mom was literally Satan, instead of just figuratively like Lucrezia, so. I mean. I kind of get what you're going through.

Per @firebirdeternal: Tarvek and Anevka growing up with "you're allergic to holy water" and not questioning it until a little later because What.

And then they test it and it's like "yeah, no, there's a rash now. That stung. What the fuck."

It INFURIATES Gil in Paris when Tarvek tells him that's a thing, because there's nothing chemically different about Holy water and regular water. But no, this is somehow happening.

It gets logged in medical journals as a Valois genetic thing because, well, Mom was like that too, right?

One time they both go into a church for an Adventure and Gil is very annoyed to find that Tarvek is like. Faintly smoking. It smells like burnt hair in here.

Gil: What smells like burnt hairgel? Tarvek: [glares]

Gil decides that it must be something particular to the church, like a fungus or something in the stone, contaminating the air and water so it only LOOKS like the holiness is what's setting off reactions.

It is not.

Tarvek once got into an argument with someone and ate a slab of raw, completely uncooked meat as a power move.

SVV seems to work perfectly. Everyone is fine. We get the ‘you fight like ducks’ moment.

And then Tarvek bursts into flames, and everyone panics because no they fixed this what the fuck is he still infected with Hogfarb’s oh my god... and then everything settles down and he's perfectly fine. Not a scratch on him, no longer turning funny colors. Completely unharmed. He's in a nicely tailored suit and looks faintly stunned

"I just met my dead mom, who's apparently Satan. She told me that after I died the first time just now, I should be harder to kill later, especially with fire, because now there's more demon and less mortal and guys I think I'm going crazy." "Is that a martini?" Tarvek looks down. "Apparently."

Tarvek starts just. Randomly setting things on fire by glaring too hard and has to tone it down. Meanwhile, Agatha and Gil are having crises about how he's somehow getting PRETTIER.

Is he faintly glowing? Maybe!

Gil handles it by angrily sniping at Tarvek about how of COURSE he's an evil little rat with a background like that.

Tarvek just wants a nap and to forget this ever happened. Many people are sworn to secrecy. It's very awkward.

Still, SVV did something, for handwave-y reasons, and so they're linked now. Gil and Agatha both getting tiny flashes of the same shenanigans.

They get none of the powers. They just keep getting Weird Shit.

Other characters with divine influence are like "Did you.... did you make a pact with a demon?" "What no that's our boyfriend."

Tho tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if a Heterodyne did sign a contract with a demon at some point in exchange for like. Materials. A hundred souls sacrificed in exchange for some succubus blood. Thanks!

Tarvek and Othar: Falling out of CW as in canon. Tarvek: WHAT THE HELL SINCE WHEN DO I HAVE WINGS HIDE THIS BEFORE I GET BOOTED FROM THE LINE FOR THE THRONE

IDK where Anevka is during all this. I think she might have decided to go sleep her way through the courts of the Ice Tsars. Vacation, y'know?

Othar after he's decided to make Tarvek his new Heroic Apprentice: AH, my poor afflicted young friend, it's noble of you to go against the dark nature of your tragic heritage like this. Tarvek: I hate you. I wish I could hate you to death. But you have a point. I shouldn't let my father's blood limit what I strive for in life. Othar: I... I thought your mother was... Tarvek: I know what I said.

Tarvek: Also you can't tell ANYONE about that, I can't have them thinking I'm not actually in line for the Storm King's throne.

He does admittedly have to like. Explain things to Grandma.

Terabithia is Tarvek’s maternal grandmother so this is supremely awkward. That said...

Grandma fondly remembers her pregnancy cravings; bone marrow and sulfur.

"Yeah so, my mother, your daughter, was... maybe actually Satan? But retconned into your life?" "Tarvek, darling, please. I figured that out half a century ago."

TARVEK ACCIDENTALLY FINDS HIM HIMSELF WEIRDLY INTENSE AT CONTRACTS

I mean that honestly just Tracks about Tarvek anyways? But like moreso.

He just. Writes something up and there's things getting signed or shook on and then the person tries to break the contract and either suddenly catch fire or are deeply unlucky for a set amount of time.

And Tarvek's just standing there like "how in the FUCK did I do that?"

Severity of infernal punishment depends on the severity of the breach of contract.

Tarvek finds out that Anevka's been convincing rich people to sign their souls over to her. It's a fun challenge. She keeps them in jars.

They can still remotely pilot their bodies but like. They can't TELL anyone what happened.

Satan: I'm going to go make babies and now everyone else has to deal with the consequences.

Anevka's living up to that whole "princess of hell" vibe. Tarvek's just like "nope nope nope I want the storm throne, not the hell throne, BYE MOM."

Satan's just feeling sinself down in hell like "awwww look at my babies go, aren't they adorable?"

Tarvek: Anevka, what... first off, how did you figure it out? Anevka: Well, I temporarily died when father put me in the machine, and... I can't say that hell kicked me out because they were afraid I'd take over, but mother DID say she'd rather I play about with human governments instead of Hell's. Tarvek: Okay, cool cool cool. What after you planning to DO with all these souls? Anevka: They make for some lovely reading lamps, don't they?

(Anevka absolutely sets herself the goal of acquiring new titles that rival her old ones, or even surpass them. She just black widows her way through Europa.)

I just want someone (probably Snackleford) to ascend, take one look at Tarvek, and run SCREAMING.

Tarvek still needed to be anchored to Higgs, because Tarvek is Baby.

Gil is eventually in a relationship with an Eternal God Queen and the Literal Son of Satan.

Family dinners can include ALL the in-laws if you duck down to hell! - You borrow Bill from... probably heaven, maybe purgatory. - You have Lu and Aaronev and Satan already there, though the first two... well. Aaronev and Lu get invited to dinner but they have to eat by themselves at the kiddy table and nobody talks to them or acknowledges their presence. After all, this is hell, and what better punishment for Lu than to be completely ignored, and for Aaronev to see Lu at her worst and be reminded that he gave everything for this horrible, horrible person who isn't even pretending to care about him anymore. - Zanta and Klaus get invited via portal. - Anevka saunters in with a blood-soaked dress and a complaint about militant demon-hunters refusing to let her go shopping for a new pair of shoes. - Zeetha tagged along with the OT3. (She can't wait to see this situation explode.)

Oh God, Satan is actually second place as far as good parenting goes.

Well, actually, fourth. Because Adam and Lilith. But second as far as bio parents go. 1. Zanta 2. Satan 3. Klaus 4/5. Lu and Aaronev N/A. Bill

Someone (Anevka) decides to stir the pot and invites Von Pinn, Terabithia, Bang.

Bang is basically Gil’s older sister, right? Right.

This is Zanta meeting Bang for the first time! Zanta is just: "It's so nice to meet my husband's adopted daughter." Klaus freezes. Bang freezes. Gil is the only one who is just. "Yeah." Meanwhile Zeetha is crying with laughter off to the side because both of them deserve this. (Zanta would legit love Bang though.)

Agatha: Tarvek, I think DuPree is-- Tarvek: Hitting on my sister? I know. Agatha: On your mom, actually. Tarvek: NO!

Also I do love the idea of like. Nobody tells Bang they're inviting her. She just wakes up in Hell like. "Ah. Yes. Fair enough."

Satan: Oh no no no my dear, you're here as a guest. Besides as well as you'd fit you're not one of mine, you've got other things waiting for you. Bang: Okay, but I love the decor. And is that Cheesecake?

Bang’s family has their own evil god in the novels, but! Bang DID pick on Tarvek a lot in Paris. Satan cares more than Anevka does. Bang might get the sexy punishment.

I feel like the fact that no permanent damage was done and it taught Tarvek a lot of things means Satan isn't gonna be all that upset about it.

And let's be real, if there's a character in GG who could look the literal Christian devil in the eye and be like "Yeah I tortured your kid, what're you going to do about it?" it's Bang.

Even Satan doesn't know what to do or think about Othar.

He sure is here! As Anevka’s arm candy! Nobody knows what to do except Anevka herself, who just wants to be Smug.

(What's that scene from Phineas and Ferb that's the mad scientist trapping the platypus within the rules of polite dining at a fine restaurant? Like he can't make a scene because that would be rude?) (That. Othar would dearly love to start a fight, but it's a Family Dinner. You're only allowed to fight verbally at those.)

(Othar isn't even fighting Satan, he just wants to argue with Klaus.) (And maybe fanboy in Bill's direction a bit).

[raeynbowboi]

The Character Forge: How to Play as Link in DnD 5e

Link is without a doubt one of the most iconic heroes in fiction, which is why I’m excited to work on this build of Link. Now, of course Link has a long history of games where he’s had a wide variety of skills and abilities. So, for this build, I wanted to focus on his most recurring skills and items, and try to find DnD items with similar effects, if possible, to fill out his arsenal. Link is a multi-talented young man who has a talent for many skills, weapons, and items. He’s extremely flexible in what he can work with, and that was a primary focus of this build: to broaden his abilities as much as I could.

The Makings of a Hero

Hylians are clearly some kind of elf. You could make Link a Human or Variant Human if you want, but if it looks like an elf and it hyaas like an elf, chances are it’s an elf. There are a lot of kinds of elf he could be. Hylians are closely connected to the gods and think highly of themselves, so High Elf is a strong possibility. But Link is also something of a wilderness expert, so he could be a Wood Elf too.

Link is clearly good, but where on the goodness scale is a little less clear. He is a champion for goodness and light, so he could be Lawful Good, but he’s also jokingly famous for breaking into random houses and smashing random pots to steal people’s hidden money, so he could fall under Chaotic Good. And that divide could also make him Neutral Good.

As for background, that also tends to differ between game. Sometimes he’s a simple villager, a rancher, a farmer, a knight, an amnesiac foreigner. He’s so inconsistent that it’s better to just give him a background that covers the skills he doesn’t pick up from his build. Top contenders for Link’s background would be Outlander, Knight of the Order, Soldier, Far Traveler, and Folk Hero.

Skills, Abilities, & Items

Weapons      -Longsword      -Shield      -Bow and Arrows      -Bombs      -Slingshot      -Boomerang      -Greatsword      -Club      -Spear      -Magical Rods Skills      -Horse Riding      -Mounted Combat      -Dungeon Crawler      -Puzzle-solving      -Weapon proficiency      -Fighting Maneuvers Famous Items      -Triforce of Courage      -Master Sword      -Hylian Shield/Mirror Shield      -Hero Bow      -Ocarina of Time      -Power Bracelet/Golden Gauntlets      -Zora Tunic/Mermaid Suit/Zora Flippers      -Roc’s Feather/Feather Cape/Hover Boots/Glider      -Hookshot/Longshot      -Gale Boomerang      -Wind Waker      -Pegasus Boots/Pegasus Seeds      -Biggoron’s Sword      -Fire Rod      -Fire Arrow/Lightning Arrow/Ice Arrow/Light Arrow      -Ball and Chain      -Fierce Deity Mask

Get to Class

Fighter     Arcane Archer     Battle Master     Cavalier/Knight     Champion     Monster Hunter     Scout     Sharpshooter

Paladin     Ancients     Crown     Devotion     Heroism

Ranger     Hunter     Monster Hunter

Rogue     Inquisitive     Scout     Swashbuckler

Stats & Proficiencies

Honestly, Link was hard to stat balance at first. I figured his best stat should be Constitution to correlate with a late-game number of heart containers. Link needs to be able to take a serious hit, and he spends most of the game getting a bigger health bar for just that very reason. Aside from Constitution, nothing really stood out as more important, though Intelligence and Charisma can get the shaft a bit, as Intelligence covers mostly book-learning which Link isn’t really known for, and largely in part to being a mute, aside from dancing in the Subrosia dance hall or playing his Ocarina, Link isn’t exactly great with Charisma-based skills. That’s not to say he’s really bad at anything, though. Link is a real Renaissance Man, as he’s good pretty much everything. Which means he shouldn’t have any negative modifiers. But Link is also not the pinnacle of strength, durability, or insightfulness. He needs items to perform feats of great strength, speed, or stamina, and wouldn’t get very far without them, so he’s also not going to be the max in any of his stats either. Rather, he’s going to be competent in Intelligence and Charisma, and fairly good at everything else.

Proficiencies:      Acrobatics      Animal Handling      Athletics      Insight      Investigation      Nature      Perception      Stealth      Survival

Link’s New Toys

    -Bag of Holding     -Triforce of Courage (Banner of the Krig Rune)     -Mastersword (Dawnbringer)     -Hylian Shield (Shield of the Hidden Lord, Shield +3)     -Mirror Shield (Repulsion Shield)     -Hero’s Bow (Oathbow)     -Golden Gauntlets (Gauntlets of Ogre Power)     -Zora Tunic/Mermaid Suit (Cap of Water Breathing, Cloak of the Manta Ray)     -Gale Boomerang (Storm Boomerang)     -Hover Boots (Boots of Levitation)     -Pegasus Boots (Boots of Speed, Boots of Striding and Springing)     -Fire Rod (Necklace of Fireball)*     -Fierce Deity Mask (Mask of the Dragon Queen) *There are items like the Wand of Fireball and the Staff of Fire, but both items require the holder to be a magic user, which Link is not.

Name: Link Race: High Elf Background: Outlander Alignment: Neutral Good Class: Monster Slayer Ranger (6)             Battle Master Fighter (10)             Inquisitive Rogue (4) Base Stats:      Strength: 16 (+3)      Dexterity: 14 (+2)      Constitution: 18 (+4)      Intelligence: 10 (0)      Wisdom: 16 (+3)      Charisma: 10 (0) Saving Throws:      Strength: +9      Dexterity: +8      Constitution: +3      Intelligence: 0      Wisdom: +3      Charisma: 0 Combat Stats:      HP: 200      AC: 15      Speed: 30      Initiative: +2      Number of Attacks: 2      Proficiency Bonus: +6      Passive Perception: 19      Dark Vision: 60 feet Proficiencies and Expertise:      Acrobatics (Rogue)      Animal Handling (Ranger)      Athletics (Outlander)      Insight (Ranger)      Investigation (Ranger)      Perception (Elf)      Survival (Outlander) Skills:      Acrobatics: +8                 Medicine: +3      Animal Handling: +9        Nature: +6      Arcana: 0                         Perception: +9      Athletics: +15                   Performance: 0      Deception: 0                    Persuasion: 0      History: 0                         Religion:0      Insight: +9                        Sleight of Hand: +2      Intimidation: 0                  Stealth: +8      Investigation: +6              Survival: +15 Condition Resistances:        Charmed Immunities:        Sleep Racial Feature: Elf        Elven Weapon Training: Proficiency with Shortsword, Longsword, Shortbow, and Longbow. Ranger Feature: Fighting Style      Archery: Add +2 to attack rolls for ranged weapons. Ranger Feature: Favored Terrain      Forest     Grassland Ranger Feature: Favored Enemy      Monstrosity      Fiend Fighter Feature: Fighting Style      Dueling: Add +2 to melee damage rolls when using 1 one-handed weapon. Fighter Feature: Superiority Die      5 (1d10s) Fighter Feature: Maneuvers      Disarming Attack: spend a superiority die to force your target to make a Strength saving throw. On a failed roll, it drops 1 item of your choosing.      Feinting Attack: spend a superiority die as a bonus action, and select a target. You gain advantage against that creature and add the roll of your superiority die to your attack damage if you hit the target creature.      Parry: As a reaction, reduce melee damage you take by your dex modifier + the roll of a superiority die.      Precision Attack: add the roll of a superiority die to the damage roll of a melee attack you made.      Riposte: When an enemy’s attack misses you, you can make a counter attack, and add the roll of a superiority die.      Sweeping Attack: Use a superiority die to cause your melee attack to hit a second creature within 5 feet of your first target. Add your superiority dice roll.      Trip Attack: Use a superiority die to force a large or smaller creature to make a Strength saving throw. on a failed save, that creature is knocked prone. Spell Slots:      1st (4)      2nd (2) Link’s Spellbook      Cantrips True Strike      1st Level Cure Wounds Hunter’s Mark Wild Cunning Protection from Good and Evil      2nd Level Find Traps Actions:      Action Surge: take an extra action once per rest.      Primeval Awareness: Spend a spell slot. For 1 or 2 minutes, you sense the kinds of creatures within 1 mile of you, or 6 miles in forests and grasslands. Bonus Actions:      Cunning Action: Dash, Disengage, or Hide once per turn.      Second Wind: Regain 1d10+10 HP once per rest. Features, Traits, and Feats:      Archery Fighting Style: Gain +2 on attack rolls with ranged weapons.      Dueling Fighting Style: Gain +2 on damage rolls when armed with a single one-handed melee weapon.      Ear for Deceit: Any roll of 7 or lower on an Insight check against lying becomes an 8.      Extra Attack: You get two Attack actions.      Eye for Detail: Perform an Insight or Investigation check as a bonus action.      Favored Enemy: Deal +2 bonus damage to Monstrosities and Fiends. Gain advantage on Survival checks to track Monstrosities and Fiends, and Intelligence checks to remember information about them.      Fey Ancestry: Resistance to Charmed effects, immunity to magical sleep.      Hunter’s Sense: As an action, choose a creature within 60 feet. You learn the creature’s damage immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. Can be used 3 times per long rest.      Improved Combat Superiority: Your superiority die become 1d10s.      Indomitable: Reroll a failed save once per long rest.      Insightful Fighting: As a bonus action, make an Insight check against another creature’s Deception check. If you succeed, you can use Sneak Attack against the creature even without advantage for up to a minute. Doesn’t work if you’re disadvantaged. Wears off if you target a new creature with this feature.      Know Your Enemy: If you spend at least 1 minute outside of battle observing a creature, the DM will tell you whether the creature is superior, inferior, or equal to you in any 2 of the following stats: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, AC, Current HP, Total Class Levels, or Fighter Class Levels.      Natural Explorer: Favored Terrains are Grasslands and Forests. While in your favored terrains: double proficiency bonuses for INT and WIS checks you’re proficient in, difficult terrain doesn’t slow your party down, always alert for danger, can move stealthily at a normal pace when traveling alone, find double food when foraging, and when tracking anything, you can tell how big they were, how many there were, and how long ago they passed through.      Sharpshooter: Attacking from long range doesn’t disadvantage ranged attack rolls, ranged weapon attacks ignore half and 3/4 cover, and you can -5 on a ranged weapon attack roll to add +10 to the damage roll on a successful hit.      Slayer’s Prey: As a bonus action, pick a creature within 60 feet of you. Add 1d6 damage to the first attack you make against that creature.      Sneak Attack: Add 2d6 to damage roll when you have advantage, or another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it.      Thieves’ Cant: You can articulate covert messages in casual conversations.      Trance: Trance for 4 hours instead of sleeping for 8.      Wanderer: You have an excellent memory for terrain and don’t need a map. You can remember where to find settlements, foraging spots, and geographical landmarks. You can always find enough food and water to sustain yourself and up to 5 more people provided the land can provide food and drinkable water.

I’m sure there’s some who will disagree with my picks, but I optimized a build around looking for enemy weaknesses, having a ton of proficiencies, and having a wide and varied arsenal of weapons at Link’s disposal. If you’d build Link another way, tell me what you’d do different. Who do you want to see me make next? And as always, I look forward to seeing you again at the Character Forge, where heroes are made.

[voiceless-terror]

Hi ily and I love bothering people with prompts, so I'm requesting "a character who’s so exhausted his hands are trembling, his eyes are dull/unfocused, he’s starting to hallucinate… and his team needs him to stay awake" with Jon and literally anyone at any time (except s5 because it's too emotionally taxing for me to keep up with oop-)

Hello there, Shannon! Here you go! This takes place in Season Two, when all is not great with the Archives team. Hope you like! <3

“And you’re sure this requires all four of us?”

“Yes, Jon,” Elias sighed, his annoyance clear even through the phone. “Believe it or not, I am trying to help you. You’ve managed to alienate almost all of your staff, so perhaps this will do you some good. You seem to enjoy ‘following-up’ these days, unlike in your first months in the position.”

That stung a bit.

It wasn’t his fault someone had died in the Archives, and that someone happened to be his predecessor. It was a natural reaction to feel some paranoia, though he will admit he might have gone a little...overboard, in some of his investigations. Tim certainly thought so. Sasha was her usual cool, aloof self avoiding him as much as possible. Martin was the only one that treated him the same, probably better than he deserved after accusing the man of being a possible murderer. He dragged him out to lunches and hovered in the evenings when Jon stayed late. He was the one who accompanied him to the clinic after his incident with Michael. Jon couldn’t help the ache that went through his chest when he saw Martin still in the lobby, waiting to take him home and fussing over his bandages. 

Walking him to his door.

And now Elias, of all people, was deciding to be more ‘hands-on’ after the intervention. The intervention where even Martin held him at arm's length, though he was still the friendliest face in the room. If this meant keeping his job, he would do it. 

Though he wasn’t so sure he even liked his job anymore. But Jon kept pushing forward. He needed answers. 

Telling his assistants was another story. 

He stood in front of them, knowing he looked a mess. He’d seen himself in the mirror this morning after another failed attempt at rest. His hair was a mess, the dark circles under his eyes were turning a lurid purple. He looked waxy and gaunt and nothing he could do now would fix it. So he kept drinking his tepid black coffee and cheap energy drinks; frankly, they were the only thing keeping him going.

Nevertheless, he didn’t exactly inspire confidence.

“Seriously, Jon?” Tim wasn’t fond of using ‘boss’ anymore, not unless he was feeling particularly vicious. “It would be fine with two of us. Me and Martin can go and take shifts. You look like the living dead.”

“Tim,” Martin admonished, shooting him a look. “He’s right, though. You don’t look well, and I don’t think an all-night stake out is what you need right now. I mean, why are we even following up on this? It’s just some ‘vampire’ sighting that’s not going to pan out. Don’t we have more important things to be focusing on?”

“Elias insisted,” Jon tried for apologetic but must have missed the mark, judging by Tim’s narrowing eyes. “I’m- I wouldn’t make you do this, but I’m afraid-”

“Why does Elias even care about this?” Tim interrupted, slamming his drawer shut dramatically. The sound made Jon flinch- that wasn’t hard to do these days. “Did you even try to get out of it?”

“Of course I did,” Jon bristled. “I know- I know the last thing anyone wants to do is spend time with me. This wasn’t my idea-”

“That’s a bit hard to believe, Jon,” Sasha’s voice was mocking, though it remained light and easy. Sasha was always ready with a barb or a joke, mostly at Jon’s expense. “I’d think you’d enjoy this sort of thing- stalking, investigating. Or is that just with your co-workers?”

Tim snickered. Even Martin had a bit of a smile on his face, though he tried to hide it. Jon felt his face flush red. 

“That’s not,” Jon began a defense but quickly backtracked, knowing it would be futile. “Elias wanted us to go tomorrow night. It’s about thirty minutes away, so if you don’t mind driving, Tim-”

“Anything for you, boss,” Tim muttered. “If you could try sleeping before then, that would be great. I filled my quota on catching you collapsing on the job.” The words were unnecessarily sharp and hurt Jon more than he cared to admit. He remembered a time when Tim was always around to lend him a hand, conscientious and kind. But he’d gone and ruined that now, hadn't he?

“I’ll be fine,” Jon straightened his back, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. Tim snorted and turned back to his desk, Sasha did the same. Martin just stood there, giving Jon an appraising eye. It made him feel like he failed an exam or came up short on an examination.

This should be fun.

_______

Sleep eluded him for all but an hour that night. The face that greeted him in the morning looked even more horrific than the day before; Tim wasn’t far off in his assessment. He said as much as Jon entered the office.

“Christ, this is going to be fun,” Tim rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair as Jon hunched in on himself, defensively clutching his extra-large coffee.

“I did sleep,” he bit out, avoiding the man’s eyes. It was true.

“Sure. Just try taking a fucking nap this afternoon, okay?” The words sounded almost concerned, but Jon knew better. “I’m not listening to you snore in the backseat all night.”

“I’ll try,” Jon grumbled as he exited the room. A sudden sting hit his hand and he hissed; coffee had spilled from the lid of his to-go cup and was now running a scalding stream down his arm. His hand was shaking, a steady and insistent tremor that refused to calm despite his best efforts. 

I’ll sleep this afternoon, he promised himself. Something’s gotta give eventually, right?

_______

Jon was wrong. Just my luck.

After two fruitless hours of tossing and turning, he finally gave up, leaving the office to grab a couple of energy drinks that he could hide in his bag. And now he was loaded in the backseat of Tim’s car, his heartbeat erratic and his chest tight. Martin had provided them all with coffee, though he handed Jon his with some reluctance.

“Are you sure you’re okay-”

“For the last time, yes, Martin!” The words came out harsher than he intended and Martin flinched back, avoiding Jon’s eyes as he got into the passenger seat beside Tim. “Don’t yell, Jon,” Tim commanded as he started the car. “God, you always were a right bastard when you’re sleep-deprived.”

“M’ sorry, Martin,” he mumbled to the ground. It was easier to focus on something stationary- whenever he looked out the window, his vision blurred and nausea churned in his stomach. And that’s why you don’t have energy drinks on an empty stomach. Stupid, stupid.

“It’s fine, Jon.” It didn’t feel fine.

By the time they arrived at the park where the supposed sightings took place, it was already dark. Tim had the radio playing softly in the background as he and Martin murmured in the front seats, a low sound Jon couldn’t hear. He wondered if they were talking about him.

Not everything’s about you. He shivered in his seat, drawing his coat tighter around his body. Sasha shot him a glance; she always had the hint of a smile on her lips, cold and calculating. As if Jon’s situation was amusing to her. Maybe it is.

He wished Martin was back here with him. Martin was warm, solid, and steady; Jon craved that, embarrassing as it was. But Martin likely didn’t want to be around him; unsurprising, with how Jon’s behaved.

The steady drone of sound was pleasant, a nice background hum that relaxed him incrementally. The occasional heart palpitations were starting to slow, and Jon felt himself relaxing for the first time in days. It was a sweet, blissful relief- surely a small nap wouldn’t be terrible, just enough to keep him going through the night-

A sharp jab in his side jolted him awake. He shot up with a yelp to find Sasha smirking, her face unreadable. “Don’t sleep on the job, boss.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he whispered, rubbing at his eyes and wishing for just a short reprieve. But the blurriness was worse now and his heart was back to its erratic rhythm- Sasha’s rude awakening had done its job.

“Maybe try looking out the window,” Tim suggested sarcastically. “We are here to do a job, you know. Not so you can zone out and sleep.”

“R-Right.” Jon didn’t mention that nobody else seemed to be doing the same. Still, he focused on the dim light emanating from the one streetlamp in the park. It was just an empty field at the edge of the woods. It would be hard to miss anything.

This went on for an hour, Sasha continually nudging him awake whenever he started to drift off. She was probably doing him a favor- who knows what horrors lurked in his nightmares, and the last thing he needed was to wake up screaming like a lunatic. He imagined word getting round to Elias that he was falling apart, even more unstable than previously thought. 

And then something moved out of the corner of his eye- a small, dark shadow was standing in the middle of the park, barely visible by the light of the streetlamp. Jon let out a choked gasp as he leaned forward, hitting the back of Tim’s seat.

“L-Look!” he whispered urgently, pointing ahead. “Someone- someone’s there?”

“Where, Jon?” Sasha’s voice beside him was amused, playful. “I don’t see a thing.”

“Right there!” He insisted, and as if on cue the figure began moving forward, edging closer to the light. “It’s moving!” 

“Jon,” Tim started, looking back at him with an inquisitive gaze. His voice was slow and measured. “What are you talking about? There’s nothing there.”

“There is!” He was aware he was begging now, a pathetic plea to just look, it’s right there, can’t you see?

Martin reached a hand to his shoulder, all concern and worry. “Jon, I promise you there’s-”

And that’s when the figure revealed itself, standing clear under the light. It was a woman, tall and sad. Her long hair was pulled back from her face with a headband, and she had round glasses and looked so, so familiar-

Sasha, his mind supplied. That’s not right. Sasha’s right beside him.

Sasha. It was insistent this time. Jon put a shaking hand to the door handle and wrenched it open, practically falling out of the car as the others protested behind him. But he paid them no mind and stumbled forward on weak legs. There were footsteps behind him but it didn’t matter because Sasha’s there Sasha’s there-

And then she was gone.

The park was silent and still, almost serene. And Jon stood under the lamp, his chest heaving and his heart racing until he collapsed in the soft, dewy grass. Sasha was in the car. Sasha wasn’t here. But it doesn’t make sense. He gagged, hands and knees digging into the earth as nothing came up but a small amount of bile and coffee. A hand went to his shoulder but he wrenched it off, a frustrated moan bubbling out of his throat as his eyes filled with tears.

“Sasha was here,” he wailed, no longer caring if he made a scene. “Sasha was here!”

“Jon? Oh fuck, oh God what do we do, something’s wrong-”

“Just pick him up, Martin, get him back in the car!”

Jon was hauled to his feet but his legs were shaky and useless; Martin cursed and scooped him up instead, unbearably gentle. He tugged at Martin’s shirt, desperate for someone to listen. “Sasha,” he hiccupped but Martin just hushed him, squeezing him tighter to his chest. 

“Sasha’s in the car, Jon,” He whispered soothingly as Tim opened the car door. “See? Right there!” Sasha, with her wrong smile and her wrong face and her cold, cold hands-

Jon let out a shriek, thrashing and kicking as Martin tried to place him in the backseat by that thing. “No no no,” he cried and tugged at Martin’s jumper. “I don’t want to I don’t want to-”

“Get in the front, Sash,” Tim commanded, something unreadable in his eyes. “He’s not going to stop freaking out until you do. Martin can sit in the back.”

“So fussy,” she said mildly as she opened the door and did as Tim said. “Is he going to be okay?”

Jon could barely follow the conversation as Martin awkwardly crawled into the backseat and tried to maneuver him into his seatbelt. But Jon couldn’t let go because Martin was real and there and the only thing holding him together at the moment. 

“Just drive,” Martin’s voice was hard and unlike him, but he squeezed Jon tighter to his chest and that was all he needed to finally give into the darkness at the edge of his vision.

_____

When he next woke he was tucked into a bed- his own, strangely. Light filtered gently into the room and Jon felt like he’d been run over by a truck several times over; every part of him aching and groaning as he attempted to sit up. 

“Jon?”

Martin stood in the doorway, the picture of anxiety and worry. “God, I thought you’d never wake!” He hurried over to the side of the bed and placed a hand to his forehead that Jon leaned into. “You don’t feel warm. You’ve been asleep for almost sixteen hours. Are you okay?”

“Define ‘okay,’” Jon croaked, leaning back into the pillows. Sixteen hours but he still felt like hammered shit. “What- what happened? Why am I here?”

“You don’t remember?” Martin’s voice somehow managed to sound more worried. “God, you were- you were really out of it, Jon. Ranting about Sasha- you wouldn’t get near her. I thought we should take you to the hospital but Tim insisted you wouldn’t like that.” Tim was always the one who knew him best. “He had a key so we dropped you off, but I thought someone should stay behind- I mean, is that okay? I don’t want to overstep or anything, but you were really bad and I couldn’t-”

“It’s fine, Martin,” Jon cut him off gently. It was touching, in a way, that Martin would want to look out for him after the fit he apparently threw. “I, uh- thank you, I guess.”

“Really, it’s no problem,” Martin said, leaning back on his heels and fiddling with his hands. “I-I didn’t want to leave you alone, and I didn’t think you’d want to wake up to Tim or Sasha-”

“God,” Jon groaned and slumped over in bed, shame coursing through his veins. ‘“I’ll have to apologize to her tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Martin agreed, though not unkindly. “But I think she’ll understand. You were exhausted, it’s not like you meant it.” I suppose that’s true, he thought. Just my paranoia out of control.

“I’ll make us some tea. You stay in bed, okay?” 

“A-Alright.” Martin turned to leave the room but a thought logged itself in Jon’s brain and he reached a hand out to stop him. “Did you stop anywhere beforehand?” he asked. “Like the institute, o-or maybe Tim’s place?”

“No,” Martin replied, a puzzled look on his face. “Why?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jon closed his eyes and leaned back into the pillows, feeling utterly drained. “It’s nothing.”

Martin exited the room and Jon tried not to think about the key he gave Tim ages ago, back when they visited each other with some regularity. 

And the idea that it was still on his keychain, waiting to be used.

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27457939

[gallavictorious]

11x01 Reaction Post

Random thoughts on and reactions to 11x01; no careful analysis or anything, just the bits and pieces that's not likely to make it into meta proper but which I still want to make note of so I can go back later and remember what my initial reaction to the episode was (since my impressions are likely to change as the season unfolds). Mostly Gallavich related, because duh, but there's disordered rambling on a bit of everything. Under a cut (God I miss LJ sometimes) because this got long.

Ian looks damned good as the homocidal muscle. I don't do AU:s, but if I did... On the other hand, Frank as a member of the Chicago “Eight” looks like a werewolf. Less interested in that AU. And listen, I get that they couldn't get Emmy Rossum for this, but I really miss Fiona showing up in a few random olden day pictures. She's gone, but she's still a Gallagher dammit! Carl at the slaughter house looked weird – and part of me thought that was appropriate because slightly off editing would be a sweet way of communicating that it's all bollocks, but the rest of shots looked okay (Debbie as a milk maid and Frank as the aforementioned werewolf) or good (everything else) so no.

The sound of a baby crying is a horror matched only by persistent lack of sleep so I feel for Lip and Tami so much. Here's to all parents who managed to get through the first year without murdering anybody! I think that maybe you don't get enough credit... I, for instance, want to kill someone just hearing Freddie cry in the background for half a minute. Not sure it bodes too well for their relationship for them to be so ready to spend every night apart like Lip suggests, but a, what wouldn't you do for a good night's sleep, and b, love the thought of Lip spending more time at the old house. Could see them breaking up during the course of the season, though. Not sure how I feel about that – Tami's my favourite out of Lip's love interests, but having too many of the couples staying together all through the finale wouldn't feel quite right (for Shameless) and I don't see them breaking up Ian and Mickey or Kev and V. Don't really expect Sandy or Debbie to last either, but since it's more of a casual thing it might have more of a casual end.

Do you remember when the promo dropped and there was Concern about That Look on Ian's face after he kisses Mickey, and I tag theorized about it being because Mickey stole his coffee? Turns out there wasn't really A Look in the actual episode, but I sure as hell was right about the coffee, and I want noted somewhere. Maybe there should also be a small diploma? A golden statue seems a little over the top, but I mean, if you insist...

I appreciate that Ian is very adament about it being their money but when Mickey thinks it's their breakfast it's suddenly every man for himself. Do you share or not, Ian? Hmm? (Let the record show that I'm joking, please. Ian is damned right to take his toast back, and I say this as a “person most likely to steal their partner's toast right out of their hand”. I also love that Mickey completely gives up on breakfast when he can't have Ian's toast and just grabs a beer instead.) The kitchen scene is glorious and I just really like their dynamic here; the casual kiss, “I only make breakfast for husbands who have jobs”, how relaxed it is even when Ian's a bit annoyed, Mickey being so... Mickey. I do wonder what went through his head when Ian started talking about their wedding present money, though – he seems worried for a moment, but then shrugs it off, and that could be either bravado or just actual lack of concern. I tend mostly towards the latter, since Mickey quite genuinely figures this isn't a big deal (even though he still recognizes that Ian will probably think it one). Please note that he immediately offers to get money when Ian mentions that they need more of it coming in. Not his fault Ian vetoes his methods, right? (Also love that Ian's objection is due to him not wanting to be separated from Mickey, rather than any moral qualms about robbing stores.)

Okay, the gag ball. Would they really keep it like that if they were actually using it? Maybe either of them just tossed it there after taking it off, I suppose... Yeah, I don't know. Not what I'd imagined them being into, but that might be my own extreme lack of enthusiasm for gag balls and harnesses talking. Either they're into it and if so, you do you, boys, or it was a gift and they're keeping it around and semi-prominently on display for shits and giggles. (But if it was a gift, they did try it at least once, right?)

Mickey in the bath remains stupidly and surprisingly gorgerous. Incidentally, I really don't think his question about the meds is any indication of him not thinking them important, but there's little wonder that Ian bristles at the mention of them. Maybe not be an ass just to prove a point, eh, Mick?

I've already talked about how hard Ian is trying here but let's just take another moment to congratulate our boy on his persistent attempts at mature communication. Though he might have given some actual consideration to Mickey not wanting to save the money if he's really serious about them making decisions together... But he gets there! I think this whole situation – which would royally piss most people, including me, off – is actually particularly difficult for Ian, because he might well see Mickey's behavior as uncomfortably reminiscent of Frank and Monica's destructive habits and yeah, that would fuck him up. And still! He forces himself to calm down! He takes Mickey's hand! He refuses to let himself be distracted by Mickey looking SO INSANELY PRETTY I CANNOT EVEN UNDERSTAND IT! Ian, I salute you!

[starwars_eu_nerd_mode]KORRIBAN! YES! HA! TAKE THAT DISNEY! You take your new so-called “canon” and your “Moraband” and you fuck right off. I salute you, Bitcoin Boy![/starwars_eu_nerd_mode]

Ah, the porch scene... This one I do have a bunch of thoughs on that will probably make it into meta proper one day, so I'll leave it for now. It was the one that took the most thinking about for me to square (still not a lot, it should be noted), but now I'm actually very happy about it. (Full disclosure: none of their scenes feel quite right the first time I see them these days, because I'm just so very on edge about what's to come that I kind of miss the forest for all the trees you know? It's not a Shameless thing – it's always like this when I'm extremely invested in something and have waited for it for some time. Will it fit with how I see the characters? Will it be cringey? Will Mickey suddenly profess a love for hideous Hawaii shirts? Also, what are they saying because English is hard... But then I watch them a couple of times and they sink in and I start to get giddy over them. I guess watching actual canon unfold always requires a little bit of re-calibration if you've been busy fanoning while waiting for it to arrive, and while I love that sort of interpretative work, there’s also the fear that the show will veer off into a direction I cannot easily follow.)

Mickey's insistence that he spelled monogamy wrong does genuinely amuse me. Not to mention the whole “No more parking tickets for me!” - “You don't have a car, dumbass.” Also, Mickey being friendly with Carl kills me, in a good way. Family FTW!

Frank's storyline fails to stir even the vaguest hint of interest in me, as per usual. For all his talk of family in this episode, the lack of interaction with any of his kids is striking. If he's to have any value at all this season I'll need him to get involved in the rest of the Gallagher's storylines (which seems like it might be happening at least for a bit later on, so I'm vaguely hopeful?). I find but faint intrigue in Carl's and Debbie's stuff, but it doesn’t annoy me either so I'll call it a win. Kev and V are (almost) always a delight, but do anyone else feel like their kids are only props, even to them? I don't know... I just don't think there's a connection or sense of realness to their relationship, you know? Maybe it's just me... Anyway, here's to hoping V turning pageant mom changes all that! Oh, and I'll need Liam to have some more screentime and stuff to do.

The Tommy and Kermit thing was weird. Eh. Whatever.

Sandy is so gorgerous. I can't. The Milkoviches really be bringing it this episode.

This is only the second season I've watched episode by episode as it airs (other one was S6) and it's a curiuos experience. I think that by and large, and particularly in later seasons, Shameless works better when you binge it, but I love the delightful anticipation of waiting for a new episode and the feverent discussion that follows. Sometimes I also despair over the ferverent discussion that follows, but... you know. It is what it is. Admittedly, any attempts at meta this early in the season is a precarious venture at best, since we don't have the whole story, and it might be wiser to abstain but it's just so much fun, so I'm not very likely to stop.

All in all, I love the Gallavich stuff, am intrigued by Lip & Tami and Kev & V's lives, okay with whatever Debbie and Carl's got going on, hot for Sandy, bored by Frank, and missing Liam. It sets up a lot of promising things, but as an episode all unto itself it felt a bit empty – probably because there were no real plots and the storylines didn't intersect as much as I would have liked them to. Shameless is best when it's about family, which both the show and Frank seems to recognize, but there's little narrative follow-through on that realization in this episode; everyone is pretty much doing their own thing. Adored the Lip and Ian convo, and that house party scene was wonderful, but so short. Think we'll get more of all of them together going forward, though, and more actual plots too, so I'm very excited about it all. Can't wait for Sunday!