#the show just suddenly decides ruby does despite that

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Waiting for Doctor Who is such pain I swear.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Mr and Mrs Knight

Steven Grant (Marc Spector + Jake Lockley) x Curvy!Fem!Reader

TW/CW: NSFW, body dysmorphia, smut, suit kink, glove kink, fingering, PiV sex, creampie, squirting, misuse of The Suit™ (and truncheons), cosplay, established relationship, fluff

MINORS DNI I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

A/N: I am unashamed to admit that suits are fucking hot and the shit they do to me is what I imagine straight men feel when they see a VS model in lingerie. And Steven is hot. So is Marc. And Jake and Oscar in general you get the rest. Imagine the Mrs Knight suit looks something like this. (Also featuring the headcanons by @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction for Jake's craftiness!)

Taglist: @mundivagantsoul @belle-oftheball34 @steven-grants-world @denile-xo @whatevenisagrapefruit @hagridnmegamind @sapphire-and-ruby

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It had been a banger of a night. A fun Halloween bash at the museum, amazing costumes, great food. Donna even seemed to be in a decent mood. But of course that woman could have been faking it.

You and Steven decided to go with matching costumes. In a gross abuse of Steven, Marc, and Jake's status as Moon Knight, you'd convinced him to use his "Mr Knight" suit as his costume.

Jake helped you make yours to match. Finding the majority was easy enough at thrift stores (despite Marc's insistence that you should buy a new one), the mask was what was the pain.

That's where Jake's expertise came in. Sure his main skill was in knitting, but that didn't mean the man wasn't nuanced in other ways to make clothes. You couldn't count how many times Jake would stitch up the seams of your favorite jacket that you just refused to throw away, or how many times he'd hit you with that smug smile when you blubbered about how awesome he was for giving extra life into your jacket so you could wear it juuuust a bit longer.

Your mask turned out to be almost a perfect replica of his, complete with glowing lenses to match Steven.

You were nervous when you got dressed, looking in your floor-length mirror at your reflection.

Your hair was pinned back neatly to allow you to pull the mask on or off (because unlike Steven's, which was magically suited--pun intended--to be comfortable) without much problem, and you would still appear "flawless" as Steven put it.

But right now, you were having second thoughts. You weren't sure you liked how the skirt fit you. Or the blazer.

The waistband of the skirt squeezed your waist and the rolls of your tummy, the creases in the fabric seemingly emphasizing every imperfection you saw in yourself.

Your transparent white stockings were not helpful either, the bands squished the fat of your thighs in a way that made them look like muffins, even moreso than your tummy. They kept rolling down so much you had to buy garters to wear beneath your skirt just so they'd stay up...

You frowned at your reflection as the skirt rode up your legs, showing off the cute lace trim of the stockings and your squishy thighs; honestly if you weren't careful, or you bent over the skirt would bare your ass to the whole party.

You were tempted to go and grab that last minute shitty vampire costume you had stashed away, when Steven walked in, already dressed immaculately in that gorgeous white suit of his.

He adjusted the tie, not looking at you as he does so.

"Hey, luv, I'm fairly ready. I can help you with your makeup now, if..." His eyebrows shoot up and his mouth feels suddenly very dry at the sight of you all dressed up.

His tongue darts out to swipe at his bottom lip, moistening it as he clears his throat.

"You look good."

"Oh.... Thanks." You mumble shyly, trying to pull the edges of the blazer down to cover the rolls poking out of your skirt a bit more.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong, beautiful?" He said softly, moving up to you.

"I... I look like a marshmallow." You sigh hesitantly, your tone full of self-deprecation.

"Hey, now." Steven smiled sweetly, wrapping his arms around your waist as you tucked your face into his lapel.

"You're the most gorgeous marshmallow on the planet if that's the case." He told you, kissing the top of your head.

He felt something press down on him, and he looked up at the mirror, getting a full view of your back, but he saw Marc's face staring back at him with a cringed expression.

(Dude, that was the shittiest compliment ever. What woman wants to hear her being compared to a marshmallow??) He hissed.

Steven was about to retort, before you started bubbling out on laughter at how silly his compliment was.

"That was so corny." You snicker.

Steven gave a smug smirk at Marc before looking down at you with a soft, lovesick smile.

"Yeah, well, you love my sense of humor, eh?" He winked.

"Yeah... I guess I do." You smile back.

"Now, then! Your makeup. Let's sit you down so I can work on it for you!"

Whenever you had your doubts about your appearance, Steven, Marc, or Jake would pipe in and alleviate your worries. Sometimes all three at once, though rapid switching would often cause problems for them (like migraines).

You kept your eyes closed as Steven carefully applied your highlighter to your cheekbones, the brush tickling your skin, his shaky breaths ghosting over your face.

He would mumble some curses when he messed up, but would correct his mistake.

When you had asked him where on earth he learned to contour and highlight he shyly admitted he watched half a dozen tutorials on YouTube to get it perfect for you.

You felt the coldness of the liquid eyeliner as he painted on the wings with the white liner, the silver and gold glitter further adding to your look.

"'Kay luv, open your eyes so I can apply your mascara." He murmured, looking down in your makeup kit for the said cosmetic.

Once he did, he pulled out the black tube and made sure there was no excess before he carefully combed the white creamy substance on your eyelashes, lightening them up to enhance the face he'd helped apply for you.

Once he was finished with both eyes, he leaned back and allowed you to blink, smiling that puppy dog smile of his in satisfaction at his handiwork before placing the mascara tube back in the kit.

He lifted his hand and shook the bottle of setting spray so you wouldn't accidentally sweat it off or wipe it off with something during the night (or god forbid it rub off on the inside of your mask).

"Close em again for me."

You couldn't help but smile at his level of gentleness and politeness.

You restrained from physically recoiling as the cold setting spray hit your skin and quickly dried.

"Now, do you want to put on lipstick now or when we get to the party?" He asked as he watched your sickeningly gorgeous lashes flutter open. All the white, silver, and hints of gold on your face enhanced your eyes and their color, the very depths of them stealing his breath away.

"We can do it now. I have liquid matte and regular lipstick." You reply, smiling once again.

"Which would you prefer?" Steven asked you.

"Whichever you think would look best."

He sucked in a breath that his lungs were suddenly starving for, and grabbed the liquid tube.

His hand gently cupped your chin as he brushed the satiny lipstick onto your lips, carefully lining them so it wasn't too much. He'd even dipped his finger in your cosmetic glitter and applied a very gentle amount.

"Gorgeous." He breathed.

"Aww..." You giggle, thankful for the glitter and makeup that hid your blush at his praise.

"Now then... Let's go, shall we?" He said, taking your hand to help you stand and slip in your white heels.

As the two of you left, Steven could hear Jake in the back of their headspace.

(Que hermosa... Be careful, hermanito. If she bends over, I just might take over for the rest of the night and have that ass for myself.)

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Mr and Mrs Knight. That's what you two went as for the party. You two even won the prize for best couples costume!

Sure it was just a gift card to some restaurant, but it was exhilarating to hear how people adored your matching outfits.

And you couldn't help but notice all night that Steven simply couldn't keep his hands off of you.

He would get like that sometimes; working himself up like that, but trying to be subtle. You knew it was only a matter of time before an awkward boner would be the cause for the two of you to leave early, so you excused yourself to the restroom under an excuse to check and see if your makeup needed retouching or if you could go the rest of the night without your mask.

But you got a little nervous when two women went into the lavatory after you, and you felt trapped within your stall. You simply couldn't stand the glances from other women you were getting all night. You were afraid these two women who were clucking at each other like hens were amongst the ones judging you.

And your fears were confirmed.

"I can't believe that such a handsome guy would pick a blimp to be his girlfriend." One of them scoffed as she applied a fresh layer of brick red lipstick. As if she didn't have enough on already.

You felt your heart sink further inside of you as the other joined in.

"I know, right? It's gotta be her tits, only thing I can imagine. Maybe her ass, too." The other laughed as she touched up the false blood on the corners of her mouth.

"Either that or she gives good enough head that he can overlook the fact that if she ever got on top she could crush him." The first one snickered.

Your hands knotted in the mask you held in your hands, threatening to tear the stitches Jake so lovingly sewed in for you to wear tonight. You bit the inside of your cheek harshly as the two gossiped further.

"Ugh, and the sad thing is, he's cute, for a bookworm who won't shut up." The second sighed.

"Ugh, I know... I can look past the blabbering if I can see what he's packing."

"Right? I wonder if he's as good with his mouth as he is with his stupid history facts." The first giggled.

You gritted your teeth. You couldn't take much more, you knew that. Insulting you, you could take and bottle up to deal with later, probably in the heat and privacy of your shower.

But talking about Steven like he's some kind of... sex toy? No. Hell no. If you were anything, you were insanely protective over your boys. Even bordering on possessive at times (of course the same was true for the boys about you).

You were done.

You slammed the stall door open and sort of enjoyed how startled they seemed when they saw you, their jaws dropping when it hit them that you heard everything.

You hurriedly wash your hands and slip your gloves back on, gripping your mask in your hand tight as you spare them a backwards glance before leaving the lavatory to find Steven.

You felt sick to your stomach and you wanted to go home...

When you found him, his brows knitted upwards in concern at how tight-lipped and tense you were when you gripped his sleeve tight.

"Ey luv, what's wrong?" He murmured to you, leading you away from the crowd.

"I... I just want to go home." You say, the words those women said about your body weighing down on you, and the things they said about Steven burning hot in your gut. You weren't sure what to feel with this cocktail of emotions.

"Hey hey, okay we can leave." He says, kissing you on the forehead.

"Let's go."

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The walk back to your flat was... Difficult. You could barely hold yourself together, suddenly hyper-aware of every roll and stretch mark on your body, even the slight double chin you had when you moved your head a certain way.

It wasn't until you were in the lift of your building that you finally broke down, your reflection staring back at you in the walls of the tiny space, crushing down on you with every imperfection you saw.

You couldn't keep in the bubbling sobs, or the fat tears that rolled down your cheeks and ruined the makeup Steven worked so hard to put on you.

He cradled you against him and cooed to you, saying sweet nothings and whispering nothing but praise for your looks, rubbing your back and kissing your hair.

In the various angles of the reflections, and the oppressive feeling weighing down on Steven... He could see and feel Marc and Jake.

Both looked pissed. Marc almost looked violent.

(If anybody talks like that about our muñeca again...) Jake trailed off.

(Oh trust me, I'll do the honors.) Marc growled.

The walk back into your flat felt horrid. You didn't just cry, you ugly-cried. You ruined your makeup, your hair fell out of the pins, and your skirt rode up more with every rushed step you took to hurry up and get in to get into some baggy clothes that didn't showcase your body.

You didn't feel cute or sexy anymore, you felt... ugly.

And Steven didn't like that one bit. Marc and Jake retreated, knowing that their anger at your injured self-opinion wouldn't help. This kind of situation was a Steven situation. He knew best how to be the sweetest person on the planet with you.

But right now he wasn't feeling particularly sweet. Sure, you were upset. But he couldn't help but get a good look at you as you walked ahead of him, the skirt riding up so much that he could just barely see the black and blue panties you wore beneath, your cheeks peeking out from the edges of the fabric, the garter straps clinging desperately to your stockings in effort to keep them up your gloriously plush thighs to keep them up.

He felt hot beneath the collar, his trousers getting uncomfortably tight as blood flowed straight to his cock.

The moment the door closed behind you, your hands, trembling and rushed, went to unbutton the blazer to get it off of you quicker, sniffles and tiny sobs sneaking out of you in the process.

However, your actions were halted when Steven placed his hands gently on your shoulders from behind, his thumbs rubbing soothing circles through the fabric of your blazer, trying to soothe you.

"Love. You're gorgeous. Beautiful." He breathed, resting his forehead against the back of your head, inhaling the lingering scent of your shampoo.

"Steven, I'm... I'm not." You sniffle. "I'm fat, I can barely squeeze into a pair of jeans, I can't even shop at normal clothing stores for women. I get looks when I wear anything tight, and--and the things I hear people say about me--"

Your voice is broken off when you hiccup, feeling another sobbing fit try to get out of you.

"You don't understand what I'm sayin', luv." Steven smiled into your hair, ever patient.

"You're the prettiest girl in the world to us. You don't need a flat belly, or toned thighs to be pretty. You're funny, you're warm, and you're soft."

You made a shocked squeak when his hands snake around you, his gloved hands gripping at your belly and squeezing the plushness there through your clothes.

Your denial died in your throat when Steven rolled his hips into you, his hard cock throbbing as he rutted into the curve of your ass.

"You wouldn't be able to get to me like this if I didn't find you the most gorgeous woman on the planet. You wouldn't get Jake to say the filthy things he tells you in bed. You wouldn't have Marc snuggling you and resting his head in your lap or on your belly..."

His breathing got heavier as he rocked his hips into you further, a bitten-back whimper dying as he swallowed hard.

"S-Steven--"

"You've been driving me insane all night. This skirt looks so good on you." He says hotly in your ear, his fingers rolling up the hem of your skirt to reveal your panties and garters, making you gasp again.

"Those stockings huggin' you so tight. Been thinking about how badly I want to have my head between your legs, tonight." He growled.

Before you could say anything else, his gloved hand went up to your mouth and he tapped your lips, begging for entrance. Powerless to resist him, you let him press his fingers into your mouth, your tongue wetting them effectively before he pulled them away, and slipped down into your panties

He dragged one of his fingers up your puffy lips, parting your folds before he turned his attention onto your clit.

"S-S-Steven--" You whimper when he starts to circle the little nub.

"Hush, now. Let me show you, eh?" Steven said, biting at your earlobe softly.

You couldn't fight it, you couldn't fight the warm nectar that gushed out from you at his words and affirmations. All your mind could focus on was how wonderfully his fingers toyed with your cunt, deftly rolling, pushing, and pinching your clit in every way he knew that brought you the best pleasure, the fastest.

Your mind practically went blank when he curled two fingers into your weeping hole, the leather around his digits making them thicker than they normally would be, and providing a luxurious texture to your clit as he massaged you with his palm. His mouth trailed down your neck, breath hot on your skin as he bit down and sucked.

It wasn't like when Jake did this to you, no. Every one of them had different methods, different touches...

And Steven was particularly good at balancing out the sweet and the hard, paying more attention to your own pleasure than his. Sometimes, he would get so lost in pleasuring you he'd cum in his pants without even being touched.

This time was no different... in no time at all, he had you cumming so hard you almost fell to the floor, your slick gushing out and soaking the glove.

He smiled sweetly into the skin of your neck as he eased you forward, so you could press your palms on one of his desks, thighs quivering as you recollected yourself.

You barely saw through your haze clearly enough to catch Steven licking his glove clean through the reflection in the mirror on the desktop, his eyes closing in satisfaction at your savory taste.

You half expected him to drop to his knees and eat you out, next, but he doesn't. He just stands there for a moment, staring at you with a lidded and loving gaze, curls falling forward over his forehead as they always do.

That's when your self-consciousness rears its ugly head, and you pinch your legs together, and try to wiggle away from his gaze, to retreat to the safety of the bathroom and escape from his heated staring.

But in a flash, Steven is on you again, his hands gripping at your hips and that's when you feel the hot, heavy weight of his leaking cock slap against the barely clothed flesh of your ass as he rolls your skirt up completely over your hips.

"Steven!" You squeak.

"Hey, now... 'M not done showing you yet." His voice croaks out, heavy and barely coherent as the silk fabric of your panties brushes the head of his dick.

He groans, giving one more roll of his hips against your ass, smearing more precum on the fabric and skin, there; before he gripped the base, lining his cock up to your weeping hole.

"Fuck, luv. So soft. So wet f'me." He said, voice strained from barely contained arousal.

You squirmed, still feeling inadequate despite Steven's words and assurances.

God, you wanted him. You wanted him so badly. But right now you just felt so... so...

Your thoughts cut themselves off when he reached behind him, and from beneath his coat pulled out one of his engraved truncheons.

Placing it in front of you and gripping it with his other hand, pulling you tight against him as he thrust sharply into you, sheathing himself in one whole go, the tip of his cock slamming upwards so suddenly you felt his tip smush your cervix before he eased back.

"B-baby--" You whine, despite yourself.

"Not runnin' away, luv." Steven grunted into your hair as he thrust into you, his hands gripping tightly on the truncheon, using the bar to squeeze against your belly and hold you against him while he fucked you raw.

You couldn't fight the snapping of his hips or his raw need for you, right now. You couldn't hold back the moans and whimpers he wrenched out of you with each punctuation of his hips.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck--" You hear him wheeze as his thrusts get more and more desperate.

There is a metallic clang as he tosses the truncheon to the floor in favor of gripping your thigh and lifting your leg so your knee was on the desktop.

You let Steven guide you so you're practically laying face down on the desk, his cock still spearing you open, pussy fluttering around him at the change in position.

You were taken by surprise when he grips your wrists next, ripping off his tie before slipping it over your hands, before tying them together at the curve of your back. Not tight enough to cut off circulation, but tight enough you couldn't squirm free.

He hesitated a moment. As nice as it would be to watch the soft flesh of your ass bounce and ripple while he fucked you... He didn't want to do it like this.

So, without further hesitation on his part, he gripped you, lifting you off your feet and rolling you so you were laying with your upper half on the desktop, pulling your legs up so your calves rested on his shoulders, all without dislodging from the warm tightness of your cunt.

You whimpered as he does this, and try to wriggle from his tie so you could cover your face, your running makeup and smeared lipstick.

Your pitiful, chubby face--

"Hey, hey..." His voice is soft and shaky as he leans in, cupping your cheek with one hand as your thighs squish against the both of you.

He caresses your soft cheek with a thumb and he smiles.

"Don't hide from me, sweetheart. You're gorgeous and I want to see you."

"Steven, I..." You whimper as your pussy clenches around his shaft, making it twitch inside of your tight, gummy walls.

His eyes rolled back with a groan.

"I'm not gonna stop until you see what I see." He grunts, dragging his cock out slowly until only the tip remains inside of you, the rest of your cunt squeezing desperately around nothing.

You're barely given a moment of respite before he snaps his hips into yours again, fucking you relentlessly and hitting your sweet spot over and over withe every arch of his hips.

Some of Marc's precision was bleeding into him as he aimed the tip of his cock like a weapon against your g-spot, pounding into you hard and fast, stoking the fire in your belly so hotly that you felt the embers scatter throughout your veins, every nerve in your body aflame in pleasure.

His left hand kneads the soft skin of your thigh, squishing and rolling the plush flesh beneath his gloved fingers before he slips his other hand between you, circling your clit mercilessly, making you shriek with every sharp thrust of his hips.

He loved how your body jiggled and bounced with every thrust; how your tits were bouncing so hard that they were spilling out of the top of your bra cups, your blazer falling completely open around you, now.

Despite still being fully clothed, you felt utterly naked beneath his gaze. Fresh tears burned in your eyes as he crammed his cock into you over and over again, his fingers working your second orgasm out of you faster and faster with every swipe of his fingers.

"It's okay, luv." Steven moaned, turning his head to plant a kiss on the inside of your knee, the leg he was squishing in his fingers.

"Cum for me, yeah? Show me how pretty you are." He pants, his thumb pressing hard into your clit.

That was all it took, the friction of his fingers, the thrusts of his hips, and each jab of his cock, plus his words? You were on cloud nine, brain fried and all sense gone as drool dribbled down your chin and you cum with a choked cry, babbling out his name over and over as your body clamps down, gushing around his cock, spraying out and soaking his hand and the front of his suit.

Steven, poor, loveable, goofy Steven could never hold out too long after you came, the squeezing and milking of your pussy was simply too much for him to bear.

Your eyes rolled back and you felt yourself spasm in an aftershock as you felt the hot ropes of his cum painting your walls a milky white, flooding your hungry cunt with everything he had to give you.

He drops your leg, wrapping them around his waist as he leans in and kisses you roughly, his tongue pushing past your lips to twine with yours and steal your recovered breaths.

"See... You're fucking beautiful. Wouldn't do this to us otherwise." He mumbles against your lips.

"Oh... God." You whimper.

Your mind ticks back into sanity and you realize the two of you are still clothed. Your outfit was of course mussed, but Steven was almost completely immaculate. The only thing he was missing of his suit was his tie, and the only sign of mess was the wet stain on his front, and his cock still sheathed inside of you.

"Hmm." He hummed softly, looking down at you with the softest gaze he could fix on you.

Steven gave you a sweet kiss to your forehead before he moved his mouth to the shell of your ear.

"And if you still don't believe me... Jake and Marc want to have a word with you."

[st4rryecl1pse]

There’s this little theory in my head right now regarding TPOT, although it is mostly based on speculation (and copium) and there are quite a few counterclaims that I thought of that I’ll cover too to be fair. I also doubt that the writing team had anything too big planned for Teardrop after Satomi was removed so.. :,] let me just jump into it (of course, SPOILERS FOR TPOT haha)

The gist of my theory is that One is the reason why Teardrop joined TPOT (yeah I know, weird theory I just wanted something more to grasp onto than “teardrop was being a sore petty loser and wanted to win somewhere else despite placing 3rd which is pretty good”).

1. First of all, seemingly nobody from post-split BFB knew where Teardrop went after BFB 30 (either TD is just really sneaky and didn’t bother to tell anyone about her leaving, or she was poofed away to TPOT land by One or something.. I mean, how have sudden disappearances of characters happened in TPOT?).

1 Counterclaim: We don’t truly know if everyone at that beach was clueless about where Teardrop went. We know for a fact that Ruby doesn’t know, but the fact that Lollipop replies to her so nonchalantly instead of also being worried about her friends suggests that she does know where Teardrop is. It would make sense for Teardrop to tell Lollipop, too, because of their friendship from the newbie alliance. The second counterclaim is that One probably would have still been trapped in the moon during BFB 30. If One was incapable of doing anything while inside the moon, then they wouldn’t be able to reach Teardrop. Overall, the more probable scenario is that Teardrop along with Profily decided they wanted to join TPOT, so off they went without telling (mostly?) everyone.

2. One makes their first appearance after Teardrop’s elimination, in the same episode (TPOT 9). It is a little goofy to imagine, but maybe once One saw that Teardrop was eliminated, they went “real sh!t” and busted out of the moon when they realized it was broken enough. They would see that they’d need to be a little more active and make deals with more objects at once if they were to achieve their goal.

2 Counterclaim: This could be entirely a coincidence, and most likely, One escaped from the moon because it was weakened enough to be broken, not because their algebraley senses were tingling because Teardrop got eliminated •_•

3: This could possible explain why Teardrop suddenly gained all these abilities in TPOT she never showcased before; One could be giving her those powers to help her out, such as PLOT ARMOR especially since she was put on a team on her own. Also, this could explain why One seems to like messing with the teams and being more in control of the contestants (rearranging the teams themselves in TPOT 12, and allowing 2 debuters in TPOT 13), since she wasn’t able to with Teardrop.

3 Counterclaim: It is very likely that Teardrop had just gained these powers herself, and she was already capable of gaining new ones in BFB with her magically walking up walls (please tell me if BFB was the first season she ever did that). Teardrop has a strong sense of self-preservation in TPOT, so it’d make sense why she’d train herself to have this influx of abilities to give her an advantage in challenges. Also, the tidbit with One rearranging teams themselves because they weren’t able to put Teardrop in a better position to win Two’s power is a little bit of a stretch, in my opinion.

4: One possiblyyy getting Leafy at the start of TPOT 13 shows that they’ll make deals with just about anyone to get Two’s power, even people who aren’t even in TPOT. Maybe One is trying their chances again with getting outside help to get Two’s power. No counterclaim to this one, just a thought.

5: This is not really evidence, but Eraser’s “do you even need the power of two?” comment to Teardrop in her TPOT 9 elimination would be a moment to look back on and go “HMMM” if this theory ever turns out to be true somehow (because One wants the power of Two hahhah and Teardrop FAILED hahaha). Look, I’m just picking at scraps here, leave me alone >:[ no counterclaim again.

6: What kind of deal would One make with Teardrop anyway? As a strong believer that, mute or not, Teardrop does not want to speak, it wouldn’t be to have a voice or whatever. Aaand now this is where I go back and think “maybe Teardrop is just a little salty saltwater drop” because my best guess is that One promised to give Teardrop the BFB or something. Teardrop is visibly disappointed when she was eliminated in BFB (I mean… who wouldn’t be?) and she seems to have a disliking for Flower, who won BFB. Again, this isn’t really evidence, just more speculation.

7: Out of the post-split BFB cast, I can see One seeing Teardrop as the most viable option out of all of them. She’s intelligent, she’s athletic (just lacking in physical strength), she’s got powers of her own already, and she’s not afraid to betray other contestants to save herself. Again, this is more of me picking for whatever scraps I can get :,)

Aaand that’s my theory about Teardrop working with One in TPOT 👍 I don’t believe it’s very likely to happen, I counterclaimed the heck out of my own theory, but hey, it’s fun to theorize and speculate :] please i just want a definitive canon reason as to why teardrop joined tpot in the first place that isn’t just satomi liking her so much

[theemptybloggercometh]

UNIT’s Latest Recruit

Fandom: Doctor Who/Doctor Who Redacted

Characters: Rose Noble, Mel Bush, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Cleo Proctor

Context: Set a few months before The Legend of Ruby Sunday

Summary: When Rose doesn’t go back to school after getting into trouble for something that wasn’t her fault, she doesn’t realise the trouble’s only beginning

Triggers: Transphobia including misgendering, deadnaming and physical assault. Transphobic “jokes” and slurs. Reference to Rowling. Reference to racism. 

Word Count: 5933

The sound of the Nobel’s front door slamming shut reverberated around the up until then empty house.

“AHHHHH!!!” Rose cried out both out of anger and of anguish. Then, using the hand that hadn’t lowered since slamming the door, she suddenly tore her school bag of her back and threw it into the corner.

All her energy expended, she then fell against the door and slid down until she was sitting on the wooden floorboards. As tears start to well up deep down inside of her, she drew up her legs up to her chest and folded her head down onto her knees. Within seconds tears were blurring her vision and cascading down her face before falling onto her school blazer.

Her mind started whirling like one of those old film projectors, projecting her day back to her.

It had started off good enough. Having had an alright  sleep, she got downstairs to find the Doctor in the kitchen preparing breakfast for her, Wilf and Donna. As they were eating, Wilf told them stories about his old army friend who everyone, apart from Rose, who going to visit that day in Chatham.

“It’s a shame you couldn’t miss school today, Rose” he said

“I don’t believe it” Donna chided good-humouredly “after all the times you stressed the importance of education to me and now you’re encouraging her to play truant”

“I’m sorry, you’re right” he said and then added, in an over the top manner “I don’t know what I was thinking, school is the best place in the entire world”

Donna rolled her eyes 

“What is you kids say?” Wilf continued “my bad”

Rose laughed “OMG, Great-Gramps, I’ve told you, you can’t say things like that it just doesn’t sound right”

Unfortunately this was as good a day as the universe was going to allow her. Indeed, it started to go downhill as soon as she got onto the bus to go to school.

“Do you have a bus pass, mate” the driver asked

The gendered connotations of ‘mate’ set Rose’s teeth on edge.

“Miss” she corrected firmly before showing him the app on her phone

Apart from gesturing towards the seats, he showed no sign that he had heard her.  

As she climbed up to the top deck Rose really wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt; maybe he genuinely hadn’t seen her skirt or noticed her long hair. (Of course, she reminded herself, gender presentation does not equal certain pronouns or a specific gender identity) But then again, he wouldn’t be the first person to see that she was trans and decided to maliciously misgender her.

A few stops later, a couple of boys in Year 9 got on and they both sniggered as they passed her to sit at the back of the bus. Rose maintained her gaze looking at the passing houses and trees as the bus slowly made its way through Camden. However, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the boys were still mocking her.

The day took another dive when she was in second period biology.

“So the male of the species – ” Mr Robson was saying when a pupil raised his hand “Yes Connor?”

“How do we know it’s a male?” said Conner whilst leaning back on the stool so that it’s front two feet were raised from the floor

Rose looked up from her notes where she had been copying the diagram from the screen as a few other of her classmates laughed and saw Mr Robson’s glance towards her.

The teacher held up his hand and the laugher slowly died down “You know my rule about there being no silly question”

Despite this, Mr Robson himself doubted that a high achiever like Connor actually needed to ask this question; it was more likely that he was asking this to make a dig at Jas-, no, Rose. Mr Robson had freely admitted to his fellow teachers that this whole trans thing confuses him.  And that wasn’t even considering how to implement all the guidelines from the local authority and the government. He’s just a few years away from retirement, for Pete’s sake, and doesn’t need this aggro. And yet…and yet…just because he doesn’t get it, it doesn’t mean that Rose has to suffer, especially in his classroom.

“How would you find out?” he asked putting Connors question back to him

He instantly regretted this course of action as Connor put on an extremely exaggerated thinking pose which would have made Miss Coopper, Head of Drama, proud

“Um…” Connor replied “I don’t know…we could look at the genital”

“Right” affirmed Mr Robson simply, hoping this would shut the tangent down “Now where was I? Ah yes –”

“But sir?” Connor piped up again

Rose’s shoulders tensed; she did not like the way this was going 

Resisting the urge to say ‘what now?’, Mr Robson instead asked “Can it wait?”

“It’s just I thought we had to ask it how it self identifies?” said Connor whilst looking pointedly at Rose

As laughter rippled through the lab, Rose’s skin prickled with embarrassment. She absolutely hated being made the centre of attention. In a way, it wasn’t the joke – if you could call it that – that stung, much more so it was the laughter. The “joke” was predicably boring and unoriginal but the laughter depressingly showed how shallow the ‘acceptance’ of her peers actually was. It was moments like this when she felt like she was in a Victorian freak show, being brought out when people needed something to stare at; to be amused and horrified by in equal measure. 

“Quiet” said Mr Robson quietly like a storm rumbling off in the distance. The laughter silenced, he addressed Connor “If you manage to pass your GCSE’s, you might wish to study sociology and learn the difference between sex and gender”

Thirty minutes later, with laughter still ringing in Rose’s ears, the bell sounded for break and her day reached its nadir when she needed to use the bathroom.

Walking past the girls’ bathroom, Rose went down a side corridor to where the disabled bathroom was located. She felt a bit uncomfortable with using the disabled bathrooms and taking up space meant for someone else, someone who needed it more than her, but she had rationalised it as societies fault for having it’s weird obsession with keeping men and women separate.

But no sooner than she had thought that, she saw the bathroom had an out of order sign taped to its door “Ah, crap” she muttered

The nearest disabled bathroom to this one was in the English block. Rose bit her lip; could she make it that far? She cursed how her body just had to betray her like this and how she hadn’t needed to go whilst in the lesson.

Taking a deep breath, she went back up the corridor and before she could think about it a second longer, pushed open the door to the girl’s bathroom. Keeping her head low as she rushed past the girls standing by the sinks, she went into a cubical and quickly locked the door.

After she was done, she stood in the cubical waiting for the girls leave. When five minutes had passed without this happening, Rose knew she couldn’t stay put any long so took another deep breath and opened the door before walking to the sinks

Rose waved her hand in front of the sensor and focused on the sound of running water as she started to wash her hands. The girls next to her were still fixing up their makeup like nothing was wrong. Maybe, just maybe, this one time the world wouldn’t end because a someone nonbinary had used the bathroom  

This was when the universe decided to punish Rose for getting her hopes up.

Rose had just about finished holding her hands under the dryer when three girls in the same year group as her entered the bathroom 

“And do you know what he said to me” Grace was saying to Bella and Zara “he said – ” before stopping dead in her tracks with her expression suddenly going from delight to disgust  

“What the hell are you doing in here?” she demanded, glaring at Rose

Even though this was far from new, it was still unnerving especially as Rose was acutely aware that every girl was now staring at her. She fixed her eyes on the door as she shook the last remaining drops of water off her hands.

Having not got any response, Grace strode over and got right into Rose’s face “Answer me, freak”

Rose took a step back and collided into Zara; having been too focused on Grace, Rose had missed the other two girls moving behind her

“Oh my God, get off me” Zara snarled as she crossed her hands defensively across her chest “I swear he just tried to touch my boob, the pervert”

Grace came around to stand beside her and Bella as they marched menacingly forward until Rose’s back was pressed against the cold hard wall, the air thick with the sense of impending violence  

Rose couldn’t control her breathing. Her heart was beating against her ribs. Her feet were rooted to the spot. Her mind was screaming ‘GET OUT!’

Grace took another step forward and this is what Rose’s body needed to snap into action. Without thinking of what she was doing, Rose turned to the left and reached out for the door handle, in her haste nearly missing it, and yanked it open. As she was in the middle of taking a step forward she felt Grace’s hands press onto her back and push her forward out of the bathroom.

‘Fuck off, tranny’ she heard over her shoulder as lost her footing and crashed down hard onto the floor. Before she could even register that her right elbow, hip and knee were hurting, she was on her feet again and had turned to face Grace. She raised her fist and was about to drive it into her stupid face but just then Mr Robson rounded the corner.   

“ROSE NOBLE” he roared

Rose, her breath ragged, blinked. If the last few minutes had been going at double speed, now it was like everything was in slow motion. She looked at her hand and wondered how it had turned into a fist. She looked at Grace who’s look of fear was turning into smug satisfaction. Likewise, the murmurs of the teens who had stopped to stare were increasing in volume.

Rose dropped her arm to her side and took a step back. She turned to face Mr Robson who’s disappointment was etched on his face.

“Please go to Mrs Gallaghers Office” Mr Robson continued this time in a low voice.

“But, but, but” sputtered Rose

“No but’s.”

“You don’t understand”

“Oh I think I do.”

Rose noticed that one of the girls who had been putting on makeup was walking away “Hey” she pleaded “you saw the whole thing, tell Mr Robson what really happened”

But the girl looked down to her shoes and hurried along

“I’m not going to ask again; go now or you’ll be in more trouble” Mr Robson demanded

Rose spluttered again before she turned on her heel and walked down the corridor. Throwing the buildings door open she started to walk across the path toward the art’s building where her Head of Year’s office was situated. She was already thinking of what she was going to say to Mrs Gallagher – like Mrs Gallagher would believe anything she said.

Rose came to a sudden stop.

“Fuck this” she muttered

Turning around, this time, instead of going into the science block, she went quickly around it’s right side until she was at some steps. With her shoe’s clicking on the stone tiles, she made her way down where at the bottom was a short path to the school reception. Knowing the questions she would have to answer if she went through this to reach the school gates, she veered off from the path and walked across a patch of grass to the staff car park. Once she had got round the collection of Vauxhalls, Honda’s and Toyotas she ducked under the barrier and made her way onto the main road.  

Back in the present, Rose opened her eyes and wiped away her tears. She was glad that she had kept it together on the bus – this time with no problematic driver. And for once she was glad that the Doctor or her Great-Gramps were not here, as they would usually be at this time; it would have been so embarrassing for them to see her lose control like that. 

Her eyes felt sore and she knew if she looked in a mirror they would be red too. She felt like closing them again and sleeping a dreamless sleep for a thousand years, maybe then the world would be better.

As much as she would have liked just to stay where she was, she knew that she had to get up eventually. Indeed, this was going to have to be sooner rather than later as it was getting a bit uncomfortable sitting on the floorboards. Slowly uncurling herself from the floor, she gripped the top of the sideboard with her left hand and heaved herself up to a standing position.

With feet that felt like lead, Rose walked into the kitchen and put the kettle on. After getting the tea pot ready, she stood waiting for it to boil. That was when she saw, over by the fruit bowl, her mum’s UNIT ID badge. Rose smiled, a weird sensation to be sure, but an fantastic idea had started to form in the back of her mind. 

The Doctor had once said ‘just walk about like you own the place’ and while this was a bit trickier as someone trans and of colour, Rose had put on her best nonchalant expression and walked through UNIT security like she had done it a thousand times. It had helped that she had done it a few times whilst visiting with her mum. It also certainly helped that she had changed out of her school uniform and was now wearing an purple jumper with a knee length black pencil skirt and ballet flats. This and her subtle makeup help make her look like a professional just starting out in her career instead of an awkward schoolgirl.

With its efficient hum of fingers clicking away on keyboards and hushed conversations, you might think that the Bridge of UNIT’s HQ was just like any other office in central London. That was until you saw the Vlinx and the soldiers dotted around, then you might start to get the idea that the work going on in here was a bit more important than that happening in the rest of the city. 

Rose had entered the Bridge and, keeping close to the walls, made her way over to the opposite side. She looked across to one of the workstations and saw that the operative was looking at pictures from the 70’s – or was it 80’s? – Axos incursion. Craning her neck to get a better look at the next operative along, she could just see over their shoulder that they were comparing various maps of Northumberland.

“Oh hey, Rose” a bubbly voice said behind her

Rose turned around to see Mel with a fresh cup of tea in her hands. She had thought she would have to make an effort to smile so was surprised with how naturally a smile spread across her lips.

“Hi Mel” she replied “you alright?” 

“I’m good thanks, how are you? Haven’t seen you in a long time”

“Yeah, the last time was…” Rose paused to think, conscious of the fact that that she was avoiding Mel’s question “It was my mum’s birthday, right?

“That was a very fun evening, my sides hurt for a week from laughing so much. Come, sit with me” Mel said as she began to walk to her workstation. Once she had reached it, she pushed some folders, a few pens and a half-full packet of Garabaldi biscuits aside and put her cup down. “Oh my, I’m such a…I forgot to ask if you wanted a drink”

“I’m good thanks”

“You’re sure?” said Mel as she went across to an empty workstation and wheeled it’s chair over next to hers.

“Umm. well, maybe a small tea” Rose said as she sat down and placed her bag on the floor

“Milk? Sugar?”

“Just a drop of milk, no sugar”

“One small cup of tea with just a drop of milk coming up. Make yourself at home”

And the thing was, Rose did feel like she was home from home. Here she felt totally safe. Here nobody was judging her. A feeling of contentment swept over her and for the first time since this morning she could properly breath.

When Mel returned, she shoved aside some memory sticks and memory drives to find space on her desk for Rose’s cup. “There you go” she said and anticipating that Rose might say something continued “I know, I know, it may look a mess, but I have a system”

“If it works for you that’s all that matters. Anyway, what are you working on at the moment?”

“This?” Mel said, logging onto her computer. The screen showed several lines, similar to an ECG “We’re picking these signals up from a satellite, but here’s the thing, where do you think they’re coming from?”

“I want to say space, but…”

“That’s too obvious, right? Think lower”

“Underground…no, the sea?”

“Yep, we’re think that the Sea Devils are waking up once more” 

Behind them, Kate, in a smart navy trouser suit, walked onto the Bridge and proudly looked at her hand-picked team. But a frown made its way onto her face as she tilted her head and started to walk forward. 

“Rose” she said firmly after approaching Mel’s workstation “can I have a word?”

“Oh, hi Kate, yeah sure” replied Rose, smiling

Once they had gone over to the side, Kate put her hand on her hips “I’m going to have to ask that you leave”

Rose’s jaw dropped “What! But I’ve been here lots of times before”

“With your mum who has security clearance, you don’t. How did you get in anyway?”

Rose went back to Mel’s workstation and retrieved her mum’s ID badge from her handbag. She handed it to Kate and then folded her arms across her chest. 

“Ah” said Kate handing the badge back to Rose “If you were anybody else, I would have you arrested”

“But that’s the thing” implored Rose a bit more loudly than she had intended. She motioned towards the workstations “this isn’t new to me. Why can’t I have security clearance”

“You’re sixteen” said Kate kindly

“But like I said, I’ve dealt with things some of these people haven’t. How about if I volunteer?”

“I’m really sorry” Kate put her hand onto Rose’s shoulder “I just can’t”

Rose brusquely shrugged off Kate’s hand “Okay” and went over to Mel’s workstation to retrieve her bag

“What’s going on?” enquired Mel over the sound of her mobile ringtone

“Nothing” murmured Rose, not looking her in the eye. Then she marched past Kate, who tried to touch her arm, and out of the Bridge.  

“Please mind the gap between the train and the platform. This is a Central Line service to Ealing Broadway. The next station is Holborn”

The doors of the carriage soon slid shut and the tube jolted forward, but despite this, Rose continued to stare into the middle distance.

It was just one more stop until she needed to change for the Piccadilly Line and then a short journey to Leicester Square where she would need to change for the Northern Line to get to Camden. She could of course gone straight from Moorgate to Camden instead of this convoluted route from Liverpool Street, but that would mean passing through King’s Cross and she absolutely didn’t want to be reminded of anything to do with her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw the man who had just got on reading the Daily Mail. Biting her lip, she shifted her body away from him.

She got the Underground map up on her phone and traced her journey from Holborn to Leicester Square. Her eyes then followed the dark blue line back up to Holborn and then onto Russell Square. She tapped the screen a few times thoughtfully.

When the tube came to a stop, Rose got off and then started the long walk down the curved tunnel until she got to the Piccadilly Line section. Then instead of going down to the southbound side, she took the right side of the junction that eventually led her to a northbound train.

Fifteen minutes later, Rose emerged from Russel Square station and went down Marchmont Street until she was nearly at its end. There stood the white store front of Gay’s the Word, the oldest queer bookshop in the UK.

As she approached, she had a moment of doubt. Going here did have the feel of postponing the inevitable explanation she would have to give her mum. But then again, her mum wouldn’t be home for a good while yet. And if she did go home now all she would do is just wait for her to get back. At least here she would be doing something. Plus, she needed something to lift her spirts up and being here never failed in that regard.

With that decided, Rose surveyed the window display and saw some books that she had read like The Transgender Agenda, Pageboy and One Last Stop. Then her eyes lit up as she saw they had Rebel Robin back in stock; She had been looking for that everywhere. 

A bell dinged as Rose pushed open the door to the shop. The person sitting at the counter pricing a stack of books looked up from their task and waved at her

“Hi” she replied waving back

The shop always had a quiet peacefulness about it and today was no different even with several other customers present

Passing a hanging Progress Flag and a noticeboard which included posters for PrEP and an upcoming poetry evening, she got to the fiction section and went straight to ‘C’ to find A. R. Capetta. A few second later she had a copy of Rebel Robin clasped in her hands.

Later she was reading a synopsis that finished ‘discover that true love isn’t limited to romance’. Maybe next time she thought as she squeezed the book back onto the shelf with the rest of the ‘O’ authors.

She had moved onto perusing the nonfiction section when the bright pink spine of To My Trans Sisters instantly caught her eye. She reached out towards the book, but just as her hand was inches away, it collided with the outstretched hand of another woman.

“Sorry” Rose said, her hand recoiling

The woman waved Rose’s apology away “No, no, my bad”. She motioned towards the shelf “you first” 

But instead, Rose complimented the woman on her outfit especially her leather jacket.

“Ah thanks babe” the woman replied “it’s Versace, but” and here she leaned in closer conspiratorially “I found it in a charity shop for a tenner, just don’t tell anybody”

Rose laughed “Don’t worry, your secrets safe with me. I’m Rose by the way”

“Nice to meet you Rose, I’m Cleo. So are you a student or…?”

“Kinda, I’m still at school”

“Ah you’re playing truant” Cleo waved her left hand into the air and clicked her fingers “Yes, girl. I totally understand, school was absolute hell”

“Is it truanting though if you’re pre-emptively walking out before being suspended?”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I got into an altercation with another girl. She pushed me and I went to punch her but guess who the teacher saw?”

“Damn, I’m sorry” said Cleo, her face full of concern as she placed her hand onto Rose’s arms

“I mean, that’s being trans all over isn’t it? Rose sniffed, determined not cry especially in front of someone she didn’t know, albeit an extremely friendly someone “the moment, the one moment, you defend yourself against all the crap that gets thrown at you, you forfeit society’s so called tolerance”

“Exactly, we’re never allowed to be angry, properly angry, even though we’ve got lots to be angry about”

“I’m exhausted being this angry though” Rose paused and briefly looked wistful “You know, I thought coming out would be the hardest part, but it’s what comes after. It’s hardened me. Years ago I would have said that violence was always wrong. But now…” Rose’s voice dropped slightly, almost as if she didn’t want to admit truly admit what she was about to say “punching her would have felt so very good –”

“For sure”

“But…but going to punch her is all evidence they needed that I’m, we’re, the dangerous ones” Rose put her hands on her temple and groaned

“But remember you we’re provoked”

“I know, it’s just…”

“Yeah” Cleo agreed simply

Rose groaned again “Sorry, I didn’t mean to vent like that”

“Don’t worry about it” Cleo said as she once again put a comforting hand on Rose’s shoulder “I know the feeling of how it is to speak to someone who gets it”

Rose nodded

“I know what you need” Cleo continued “a coffee…oh…do you drink coffee? Tea, you need tea. Maybe a slice of cake? I know somewhere really good around the corner, yeah?”

Rose nodded again “Just let me pay for this” she said holding up her copy of Rebel Robin.

They started to walk towards the counter and just before they passed the shelf that divided the back from the front of the store, Rose realised that all the other customer had already left.

“What the hell” exclaimed Cleo 

Rose stopped dead in her tracks. She could literally feel her blood run cold. Instead of the kind person sitting behind the counter, there with its wings outstretched and it’s face covered was a Weeping Angel. 

“Don’t blink” she yelled as she kept her eyes locked on the Angel

Cleo turned around to face Rose “Why?”

“I think that’s a Weeping Angel, at least I think so based on the Doctor description”

“Wait, you know the Doctor?” asked Cleo disbelievingly 

“You know the Doctor?” exclaimed Rose, her astonishment causing her to momentarily lose focus. Her eyes snapped back to the Angel but now it was no longer at the counter. Instead it was just an arms-length away from Rose’s right side with its face frozen in a scream. Automatically, as if to correct her mistake, Rose turned and stood square to the Angel.

“Wow, how did it do that?” shouted Cleo as she took a step back

 “They are quantum-locked” Rose replied

“What in the hell does that mean?” asked Cleo, her voice noticeably higher

“We’ve got to keep calm” said Rose soothingly, ironic given the fact that she was internally freaking out herself. Addressing the Angel she said, a lot more confidently than she actually felt, “So…so that’s really bad luck, mate. What are the chances, eh, I mean, not just one but two people who know about aliens and shit”

“Or maybe it’s not a coincidence” Cleo pipped up

Rose wanted to say ‘thank you’ but thought better of it. Gosh her eyes were starting to sting. “What we need is help” she started to explain. She tried to turn slightly to her left but could only manage a few degrees before she would lose eye contact with the Angel. Annoyingly this meant that she had to contend with the Angles outreached wing that divided her from Cleo. “I can’t get to my phone in my bag without looking away” she continued “but if I throw it to you, you can call Mel, she works at UNIT and will be able to help”

“Great, yeah ask the person who can’t catch why don’t you”

“Well, at least I throw like a girl” Rose slipped the bag of her shoulder and took a deep breath. For the first time, she was glad for those PE lessons; finally a use for learning how to do a rugby throw in. “Right here goes nothing”

The bag sailed over the Angel’s wing and then over Cleo. Cleo turned to grab it, but it fell though her arms. Despite herself, Rose winced. Instantly she looked back towards Angel but it was now exactly where Cleo had been standing.

Oh shit! Rose started to walk backwards; hadn’t she seen a door to the stockroom at the back of the shop? But as soon as the this plan formed it was shot down by the realisation that she would have to turn around to use the door handle.

Her eyes were now screaming in pain. How long could a person go without blinking she wondered? Why did this have to happen on a day she had been crying? But then again there hadn’t been that many days recently where that she hadn’t been crying to be honest. God knows what her emotions were going to be like once she got onto…

If she was going to go down, she wasn’t going down without a fight, even if the only weapon she had was her words. “This must be so difficult for you” she said, taunting the Angel. “wanting to feast but having to wait. How does it feel to be that powerless?”

She could feel her eyelids trembling as her eyelids got closer and closer. The Angel was getting more and more blurry. She knew she couldn’t hold on any longer. But her overwhelming thought was about wanting her mum.

“Go, go, go!” a voice yelled

Rose heard the breaking of wood behind her and then a second later felt someone or lots of someone rush past her. Something then rolled across the floor and emitted a few bleeps. Through her blurred vision, Rose could see an extremely bright light, brighter than any light source she had every encountered before. She wanted to cover her face but didn’t dare move.

“Angel neutralised, ma’am” said the same voice

Rose felt an arm go around her shoulders

“It’s okay, your safe now” reassured Mel

As she collapsed into Mel’s arms, blinking rapidly, Rose felt like she had just swam the Channel; totally exhausted but also full of pure relief. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God” she repeated.

She watched as Kate strode over to where a grenade shaped object was shooting a beam of opaque light right at the centre of the Angel’s chest causing it to shimmer

“How’s the Quantum Beam holding up, Captain Gethin” she asked one of the soldiers who was part of a triangle formation around the Angel

“All good ma’am” he replied

Kate nodded “I want this taken to the Black Archives immediately”

“Yes ma’am” the soldiers chorused  

As Captain Gethin began to radio for equipment Kate turned her back on the soldiers, and faced Rose and Mel. “And, Sergeant Burns” she said to another solider “can you get Miss Nobel a very strong cup of tea”  

Rose, with her head resting now on Mel’s shoulder, asked “How did you know?”

“I can answer that” said a familiar voice behind her

Rose whipped around to see Cleo leaning against a shelf of bisexual nonfiction. She ran across the shop and threw her hands around Cleo in a huge hug. “h…h…how?” she exclaimed

“Well” Cleo began

“I’m really sorry” Kate put her hand onto Rose’s shoulder “I just can’t”

Rose brusquely shrugged off Kate’s hand “Okay” and went over to Mel’s workstation to retrieved her bag

“What’s going on?” enquired Mel over the sound of her mobile ringtone

“Nothing” murmured Rose, not looking her in the eye. Then she marched past Kate, who tried to touch her arm.

Mel shot Kate an enquiring look but knew from Kate’s expression not to pursue the matter. She leaned over to get her mobile and frowned as the screen was saying that it was Rose was calling her. But that couldn’t be, she could see Rose storming out of the Bridge.

Not knowing what to expect, she accepted the call. “Hello?” she said hesitantly

“You don’t know me, but my name’s Cleo Proctor and I need your help; Rose is in danger”

Rose’s eyes had widened as Cleo relayed this “Wow, what a stroke of luck only being sent back a few hours to the Royal Hope hospital of all places”

“I’m afraid that it wasn’t luck” said Kate “All UNIT badges are equipped with technology that means if someone is inadvertently or deliberately thrown back in time, they only go back a maximum of five hours and to nearby hospital, just in case they’re injured”

“It is good though that you chucked me your bag instead of just your phone” added Cleo “otherwise I would have been a goner”

Later, when Rose’s storiform cup only had the dregs of her tea remaining, her and Cleo walked out of the shop and down Marchmont Street. Cleo had offered to walk Rose home and she was prepared not to take no for an answer, but Rose leapt at having her by her side.

They had got a meter down the street when Rose was struck by an idea

“Wait a second” she told Cleo and ran back to the outside of the shop where Kate was on her mobile

“Okay, keep an eye on it and I’ll be back at HQ soon” Kate said before ending the call “yeah, Rose?”

“I was just wondering, the person working here taken by the Angel, what are you going to tell their loved ones, I mean they’re going to want to see the body, aren’t they?”

Kate looked thoughtfully at Rose “We going to say the body has already been cremated, an unfortunate administrative mix up, won’t happen again, that sort of thing”

“Uh…okay” 

“We have tried other ways, but this is the one that works the best” A few seconds of silence passed before Kate prompted “So…was that all?”

“Um…no” Rose replied hesitantly “So…like this is the second alien I’ve dealt with and if I say so myself, I think I dealt with it remarkably calmly whilst displaying good leadership skills as well as initiative so –”

“So you were wondering if this would mean you could have a job with UNIT?” Kate put her hands into her beige trench coat and after a long pause said “I’ll see what I can do, might have to be voluntary to begin with, but we’ll see”

Rose clapped her hands together “Great, thanks” She motioned to toward Cleo “I have to…”

“Yeah sure, I’ll let you know soon”

“Great” Rose repeated before going back to Cleo

“Everything sorted?” Cleo asked as they started to walk towards Russell Square tube station 

“Yeah” replied Rose “I was just asking Kate if I needed to sign the Official Secrets Act again. What about you, when are you signing it?”

“Kate’s going to contact me later on in the week” Cleo replied and then with a more tongue-in-cheek tone added “I’m really annoyed about it though; after all, I was only helping you as it would have been great for the podcast”

Rose laughed. It was a wonderful thing –  to laugh – Rose realised; it made her feel so glad to be alive. 

[rubywithin]

World of Whim 9

-Outside the Shrine- (Percival) "Hyaaaaah" (Mystel) "Humph, your technique is still not good enough". -heavy breathing- he swipes away all my attacks so easily...I know he is strong but I should at least be able to push him back a bit! "May I ask why you have asked for this training session?" (Percival) "Simple my failure". I know Nezumi was the one sent to take care of these rebels yet I fear our master would get rid of me if she saw me as a failure! (Mystel) "As long as you keep our support up you have a place here.....try working on your stances. You need to keep your balance other wise you can easily be pushed away!". I knew I could trust Mystel to help me improve, next time I face those two rebels I will take them down ugh...why do I feel like a third person was involved in the battle though.

-At the underground train station- (Kazuya) "So why do we have to take pictures of trains?". (Ruby) "Simple to pose as a photography club, we need a variety of different scenes! If we get some shots here and some nature based ones we can get contrasting sceneries to make it look like we are genuinely interested in taking pictures". (Kazuya) "Aren't you being a little too detailed with this rouse?" I shook my head. (Ruby) "I was thinking what if we take pictures of the areas the musicians perform in too. We could also use the photography club as a full cover for taking down the Musicians". I think he was starting to get what I was going for, he then took a bunch of pictures. On my way back I got a message from Maria, apparently Percival wants to meet her in some park. I told her not to worry it seems like he just wants to spend time with her. After I got off the train I noticed Melanie...she didn't look ill!

(Melanie) "What are you looking at?" (Ruby) "Everyone was gossiping about your class skipping today!". She looked a bit annoyed at me, I just wanted her to know about it. (Melanie) "Isn't it ordinary for.....AGH" I rushed over to her! (Ruby) "Are you okay?" she nodded and told me it was just a headache. That was out of no where...maybe she was trying to make it look like she was ill. Hmm no that can't be since she was definitely going to tell me it was ordinary to skip classes since Kazuya does it a sometimes. I went back home and met up with Naoh, (Naoh) "Any progress today?" (Ruby) "Well I got Ryuto to agree to join the club, also we decided to pretend to be a photography club. So we can act like we are going to the musician concerts for photo's!". Tomorrow I decided to actually ask Maria if she would join the club and if she agrees we then just need one more member.

-Meanwhile at the park- (Maria) "Percival are you here?" I sat down and waited for a bit! I did not see him around despite everyone around I felt quite alone. I sat for about 30 minutes but he was yet to show up despite his letter stating this exact time! (Music) "La la laa la la" huh? why is there suddenly music starting too play?" I saw everyone transforming. I got up and tried too run away suddenly an arrow went flying at me so I dived to doge it! (Nezumi) "Well would you look at that, Percival's girlfriend didn't transform! I guess it means she knows this worlds secret!" -Gulp- It was Nezumi Yuyell also known as Lullaby Mage...was this a trap set up? "Don't worry I won't hurt you as long as you help me figure who attacked Percival the other day!"

[kob131]

https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBYcritics/comments/vpbf7w/okay_i_played_nice_but_i_am_going_to_finally_vent/

Hope you don’t mind if I vent to, because this is horse shit.

But then I was reminded of Volume Nine, of how CRWBY said, oh it's going to be Ruby's Volume, and then more came out, and we get a vague description, a name of some Island that is either going to be the afterlife or some bloody alternate future all samurai jack style or maybe not even any of those effing things!

And then of course it turns out they are going to introduce even more new characters. Despite saying this is Ruby's volume. You know....

RUBY GODDAMN ROSE!

I would like to point out that the closest thing to a ‘character’ that we know of is the talking mouse. Which given its first scene is to basically set up and act as a step in RUBY’S journey- this doesn’t really make sense.

And spoiler alert- the issue of ‘I completely ignored shit so I can angry’ is a recurring issue.

The Girl whose trailer sold the show long before the other trailers showed up!

Who didn’t HAVE a character at the time and could have been replaced with ANYONE in the show since it was about the ACTION.

The Girl the pilot episode was named after!

Ever heard of a red herring?

The Girl who has silver eyes that function like fucking Deus Ex Machinas!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

“Deus ex machina (/ˌdeɪəs ɛks ˈmækɪnə, - ˈmɑːk-/ DAY-əs ex-MA(H)K-in-ə,[1] Latin: [ˈdɛ.ʊs ɛks ˈmaːkʰɪnaː]; plural: dei ex machina; English "god out of the machine")[2][3] is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.[4][5] Its function is generally to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or act as a comedic device.[6] “

By definition, they only qualify in Volume 3.

AND YET IN WHAT WARPED VISION OF REALITY COULD ANYONE EVER CALL HER THE MAIN FUCKING CHARACTER?!

WHAT HAS SHE ACTUALLY DONE FOR MOST OF THE SHOW?!

The reality we live in, where she is responsible for EVERYTHING after Volume 3.

No, really. Ruby chooses to leave, taking Jaune, Ren and Nora with her. By Jaune’s own admission, they would not have done so. She also motivated Yang to leave, leading to find Raven and thus rescue Weiss. Her presence also causes Cinder to push up their plan for Haven, which ends up fucking them over and foiling their plans. It also means Blake is able to stop them as Adam couldn’t get backup from Salem’s faction, to say nothing of how Ruby’s actions also lead to Tyrian being forced back instead of inevitably joining the fight given his hunt for the Spring Maiden.

Volume 4 and 5, thus by extension 6-8, only work because of RUBY’s decision.

But hey, maybe he has a brilliant rebuttal to this!

Volume One she legit did fucking nothing! It was mostly Blake that did shit!

... I didn’t know Volume 1 consisted of two episodes. Given that’s ALL that Blake is active for.

Then Volume Two? Once again it's Blake's stuff that is largely driving the fucking plot and Ruby just happens to be there! She fought Cinder for a bit, but that goes nowhere, and it's only real time they've fought, because Volume Three wasn't even really a fight, it was just deus ex machina!

Completely ignoring that Ruby is the one to decide to split up, involving everyone and thus ensuring the destruction of the Paladin.

Ruby: (Ruby raises her hand and does other random gestures, while looking manic.) Okay, all in favor of becoming the youngest Huntresses to single-handedly taking down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale... say aye.

And that she’s also responsible for going to Mt. Glenn.

Ruby: This is perfect! All we have to do is shadow a Huntsman working in the southeast!

Yang: Yeah! We'll follow them around by day and give them the slip by night!

Weiss: Let's check "search and destroy"!

Team RWBY approaches a hologram screen.

Ruby: Here we go! Quadrant 5 needs Grimm cleared out!

Blake: Well, it's in the southeast!

Yang: Sounds perfect!

Ruby selects it and types in her team name. However, the screen says that first years are not allowed to take this mission.

Weiss: Wonderful!

Blake: Any other ideas?

Ruby: We mail ourselves there!

Ozpin: (offscreen) Well, that's one option.

Ozpin suddenly appears.

Ozpin: Unfortunately, we determined that the concentration of Grimm was too extreme for first-year students. It seems that particular region is rather popular. In fact, I have the sneaking suspicion that you four will make your way there no matter which job you choose.

Weiss, Blake, and Yang glare at Ruby, who nervously rubs her head.

Ruby: Whatever makes you say that?

Ozpin: I'm still curious how you all found yourself at the docks last semester. I'm interested to know how you really learned about a hideout in the southeast. And I certainly wonder why witnesses reported seeing robots and rose petals in a dance club some time ago.

Ruby: Um... well...

Ozpin: I doubt I'll ever find the exact answers I'm looking for. So how about this: instead of waiting for you all to break the rules, why don't we just bend them?

Ozpin selects some things on his scroll, and the hologram screen makes a noise.

Ruby: We won't let you down. Thank you, professor.

As well as bring Zwei-

Oobleck: Young lady, what in the world could you possibly have in that bag that could be so important to bring it with... (Stops as the bag's zipper opens and out pops Zwei's head, causing everyone to stare at the uninvited guest.)

-Who in turn sets off the finale by following WF guards, leading to RUBY HERSELF following him.

Ruby: Huh? Zwei, it's late. Go back to bed. (Zwei runs off.) Zwei! Zwei! Ugh! (Ruby wanders out of the building, looking for Zwei.) Zwei! Zwei, where are you? Zwei! Huh? (Ruby spots Zwei urinating on some ruins.) Zwei, this is a wasteland! You literally could have done that anywhere!

Zwei: Bark!

WF Guard 1: What was that?

Having heard the WF Guard, Ruby hides behind some ruins.

WF Guard 2: What was what?

WF Guard 1: I thought I heard a Beowolf or something.

WF Guard 2: Hmph. Let's just finish our patrol and get back to base. This place gives me the creeps.

As the WF Guards walk away, Ruby and Zwei sneak around in the background, following them. They eventually reach a ruined building with a pair of metal doors, and Ruby hides behind a corner, holding Zwei out to watch them.

Ruby: Did they go in yet? One bark means yes.

The sound of the door closing echoes out.

Zwei: Bark!

Ruby: Oh! This is it! This is it! (She brings out a small scroll and tries to call her teammates. However, the screen says "Low Signal") Aw man! Come on, we gotta get the others!

Ruby and Zwei hurry off down the street. However, the asphalt beneath them suddenly sinks before caving in. Ruby grabs onto a ledge and catches Zwei. She tosses him up out of the hole and begins to attempt to pull herself up. However, the ledge she is holding onto breaks off, and she plummets into a huge cave filled with ruined buildings, far below the surface. She lands on a building up against a cavern wall, and as she gets up, a nearby door bursts open to reveal two other WF Guards, one of whom is Perry.

But sure. Being responsible for both of Volume 2′s ACTUAL conflicts is ‘not being the main character.’

Speaking of Volume Three is Pyrrha's Volume, and RWBY just happens to exist there.

Ignoring Ruby’s connection Penny and Qrow, important figures in Volume 3...and her fights with Torchwick which end with him killed before he could cause more damage...and going off to find Jaune and Pyrrha which leads to crippling Cinder and thus Cinder’s motivation from then on.

Real lack of agency, focus or connection.

Then come Volume Four, and while Yang is angsting on her ass, except no it gets glossed over because it's too fucking boring apparently.

You are begging for attention on a subreddit that made dealing with an overwhelming situation about fucking tea. Kiss my ass.

Weiss mopes until she is out of there.

I didn’t know ‘was forced to be a puppet by her father because it is the only certainty’ was “moping”.

And Blake instead of trying to stick around and protect her team and friends, she runs away to go cry to her bloody family! It being lucky that Adam didn't fucking carry through on his threat!

It’s called a ‘flaw’. I know basic writing concepts is not this subreddit’s forte but even ignorant high schoolers understand this.

And Ruby? Don't fucking make me laugh, Volume Three might have had her come up with the idea to go to Haven.

But she sure as fuck wasn't leading Team RNJR despite the name.

Honestly, I couldn't tell you who the leader was before Ozpin came along. It seemed to either be Jaune or Qrow.

Hold on, he forgot something.

And Ruby? Don't fucking make me laugh, Volume Three might have had her come up with the idea to go to Haven which single handedly caused the events of Volume 4+ to actually function but we all know you fucks are basically trained parrots.

But she sure as fuck wasn't leading Team RNJR despite the name.

Honestly, I couldn't tell you who the leader was before Ozpin came along. It seemed to either be Jaune or Qrow. 

Explanation? Uh....RWBY bad!

There, fixed it.

Ruby gets a little nightmare, gets a little sad, but NOPE CAN'T HAVE THAT, INSTEAD SURE, LET'S JUST FUCKING FOCUS ON JAUNE FOR A BIT, EVEN THOUGH WE JUST HAD RUBY HAVING A NIGHTMARE!

Which is shown to be caused by a recording of Pyrrha JAUNE had.

But hey, let’s check how that little thread ended. I know we are aware Jaune will completely overshadow Ruby because OP has been batting a 1000 so far but just to strengthen his argument, let’s che-

Ruby looks at Qrow before standing and approaching Jaune.

Ruby: I'm sorry.

Jaune: Huh?

He turns around to face her, though she is not looking up.

Ruby: This is all my fault. I should have never dragged you guys into this.

Jaune: You didn't drag us in. We wanted to come.

Ruby: But you didn't know about Tyrian, about—

Jaune: (cutting her off) Ruby. We lost... We lost Pyrrha.You lost her, too. And Penny, and your team, and in a way... your sister. But you're still here, despite everything you've lost, everything you could still lose, you chose to come out here.

Ruby turns to face Jaune, and becomes emotional as he continues.

Jaune: Because you felt like you could make a difference.

She lifts her head and looks at him.

Jaune: You didn't drag us along. You gave us the courage to follow you.

He puts his hand on her shoulder. She smiles at him, grateful, and he smiles back.

It ends with Jaune talking about how great Ruby is. Which anyone not huffing paint thinner would know that it was focused on RUBY then.

And then Volume Five... Oh look, Ruby has a little crush on Ruby/Jaune 2.0 with Wizard Mentor stuck inside of him. A character that is now as fucking important as Ruby herself, and he was introduced in volume fucking four, after three volumes, where our main character barely gets any fucking development, whose silver eyes are barely explored at all!

... Oscar’s the one with the crush, not Ruby. I know that you are desperately trying to play on the subreddit’s need to hear ‘RWBY bad’ in order to hide how contradictory to canon your arguments are but you must know: good lies require a core of truth.

And BTW- Ruby was the one to recover from seeing Blake first and ordered Yang to follow Raven and Cinder, which lead to them getting the Relic. So once again, Ruby single handedly shapes the following Volumes through her actions.

The little jackass is just thrust into being one of if not the most important character in regards to the plot more than Ruby, the so-called main goddamn character!

Not really, it’s just you and desperate critics saying that.

And all she amounts to in Volume Five, is getting one little letter, getting her ass kicked by Emerald, to make Oscar get the power of fucking super boner to go save her ass.

Blake: Yang?

Yang stares back at her in disbelief, before her sister snaps her out of her trance.

Ruby: Yang! Go! (pointing in the direction of the vault entrance)

Yang runs forward. Emerald and Mercury try to stop her.

Emerald: No!

Emerald tries to stop Yang, but fails to and falls to the ground. Mercury grabs her prosthetic arm. Yang's eyes briefly turn red before turning back to normal. She detaches her arm and continues forward, causing Mercury to lose his balance for a bit. She jumps down the hole leading to the vault. Emerald and Mercury attempt to give chase, but they are stopped by an ice wall that suddenly appears in front of them. They turn around and see Weiss with her Queen Lancer summon as she prepares to fight the both of them. Jaune watches from his position and smiles. Ruby then turns back around to look at Blake, and both nod at each other as the cat Faunus goes back outside to join the battle.

Wasn’t lying when I said that Ruby is responsible for Volume 6 onward too.

And all she amounts to in Volume Five, is getting one little letter, getting her ass kicked by Emerald, to make Oscar get the power of fucking super boner to go save her ass.

You know, for a supposed Ruby fan, you sure do love ignoring her accomplishments.

Almost like you only like a certain version of Ruby.

And what does this all amount to for Ruby? Nothing! Because now at least when she made a choice to go to Haven, it was her own fucking choice.

But now? Oh she just heads to Atlas, because Ozpin said so.

Ozpin. The guy who actually knows what’s going on and what to do. 

This is like that one trope of a salesman tricking someone into buying shit by appealing to their pride, except the salesman is 100% serious.

And then Six finally tries to give Ruby shit to do. But what does she fucking do? She drags the painful truth of Ozpin's past out of Ozpin, and her team just watches by, calls him a bastard, and her Uncle is allowed to just punch a little boy, who while I fucking hate Oscar right now, since I am in full fucking rage mode. And will cool down eventually, that punch was still out of line!

So, gonna mention that RUBY was the one to comfort Oscar?

Oscar: (grabbing the cane) I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?

Ruby: (puts her hand on his) Of course not. You're your own person.

No? Weird since you’re SUUUCH a Ruby fan...

And then she later fucking balls on her Uncle, forces him to quit drinking, pretty much tells him "Fuck You" In her "We dOn'T NeEd AdulTs" Speech.

... Qrow kept drinking himself into a dysfunctional mess every given chance, constantly kept bringing the mood down in a world where negativity attracts DEADLY Grimm and did fuck all to help. Cry me a river.

And then I could maybe excuse stealing the airship into Atlas, if there was no real other solution but there was, Weiss could get in, with the relic and maybe Qrow in his bird form.

*pulls out a tape recorder and presses play*

“Weiss was specifically stated she could go HOME, to her STAUNCHLY ANTI-IRONWOOD father who LOCKED HER AWAY. And crows can fly at max 40 miles continuously. Atlas is farther away on the map than me and my mom at 90 miles.”

What was the actual fucking point in that conflict? Nothing! But the fact they just wanted to show off a big fancy mech! But it did nothing for the characters.

Cordovin: Surrender for your crimes, and accept your punishment.

Ruby: (defiantly) No!

Cordovin gasps in shock as Ruby's friends look to her.

Ruby: We're going to Atlas. Bigger people than you have tried to stop us and failed, but we're supposed to be on the same side! We're supposed to use our power to protect people, but you just use yours to look down on everyone!

Cordovin ponders Ruby's words.

Ruby: We didn't want to steal from you. We did it because you gave us no other choice! Now I'm giving you one last chance to stand down and hear us out.

Silence for a moment.

Cordovin: I've heard enough...

Cordovin then aims her arm cannon at Ruby. Ruby's friends run over to her in panic.

Oscar: (reaching out) Ruby!!

Qrow gains a look of horror on his face as Cordovin fires up the arm cannon. Suddenly Ruby uses her Semblance and flies into the arm cannon.

Cordovin: WHAT?!!

Nora: She's NUTS!!

Ruby continues flying into the arm cannon.

Jaune: The missile launcher springs out... but the raw dust gets locked in!

Inside the arm cannon, Ruby plants Crescent Rose into the ground and takes aim at the buildup of Dust. She fires and uses her Semblance to quickly get out of the arm cannon. Suddenly, the arm cannon explodes, covering it in ice and stone.

Cordovin: What?! No! NO!!

As Ruby flies backward, her Aura runs out and falls unconscious. Her fall is slowed down by black Glyphs from Weiss, and Qrow catches his niece in his arms. Weiss collapses in exhaustion as Jaune, Ren and Nora run over to her.

P.S. remember that ‘for the characters’ bit. It’ll bite him in the ass in 3...2...1-

And then Volume Seven happens, and she lies to Ironwood, because sure why the fuck not. It's not like he didn't give her sister an arm, it's not like he didn't fight alongside her uncle for years, helped during the Fall, or was accommodating to them, and let them on his plan.

I won't be too much of a simp for Ironwood, and claim he was flawless, I love him but he did do some wrong things. But he didn't do anything wrong at the beginning that would warrant Ruby to fucking lie to him, not only does it insult Ironwood, it insults Ruby's own character who barely got any development, but what I can say for absolute certainty, is the Ruby Rose of Volumes One and Two wouldn't have fucking lied about something that important.

It was one thing when she and her team were tracking down leads on the white fang and roman in Volume Two. That was a personal matter, and they still didn't know the larger picture.

But to just lie about Salem and the Relics? And her immortality? Shit that everyone should probably know before trying to pick some big epic fight with Salem? Just fucking hell!

And despite how her team confronts her about it, they're just as bad because they wag their little fingers, but they have no trouble going behind Ruby's back to Robyn and letting her in on secrets, yet they couldn't be bothered to let Ironwood know the truth.

And the writers couldn't even let Ruby own up to Ironwood, no who did they give that burden of responsibility to? Oh yeah Ruby/Jaune 2.0. Not Ruby Rose.

Hey look at that, him completely ignoring Ruby’s character to bitch. Who knew?

A. Ozpin did more and still proved untrustworthy. That is not how people work.

B. Ruby tried to sneak off to fight the White Fang, with despite what you say WASN’T personal.

C. Almost like she’s MEANT to be wrong.

D. Gee, not like YANG confronted her over NOT TELLING THE TRUTH which SHE did.

E. And who confronted Ironwood on his decision, was portrayed as his counterpart for the heroes and remained his opposition in Volume 8? ... Ruby? Oh damn that pesky canon!

But surely she got some cool new upgrades? Some scenes with her dear friend Penny? Or I dunno anything? No?

Not even a rematch with Cinder... Oh Cinder got scared and ran away when Ruby's eyes glowed.

Okay... uh anything else... no that's it...

“She got to be the driving force. Again.”

“AUGH! IT BURNS US! IT BURNS US!”

And then Volume Eight...

Ughhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh let's just shove her into the fucking mansion, and let Yang, Jaune, and Ren go into the fucking whale. Not Ruby, not Weiss, or Blake, just sure, no wonder people keep thinking Jaune is the real main character you bleeping-

And then that plan, that fucking plan, and maybe it would've even worked somewhat, except, the writers don't even let her use her silver eyes once, because they know that Cinder shouldn't have any fucking chance at all. And don't give me horsecrap about her needing to focus, because in the previous volumes, she seemed to do it near instantly.

“Sir, we have video evidence that a lot more happened and it directly contradicts you.”

“Well I don’t see it!”

“That’s because you gouged your eyes out.”

Okay now that the rant is over. Time to get somber.-

By ‘somber’ he means, ‘dig up Monty while proclaiming he isn’t to preach about how RWBY was better with him even though his own arguments would say otherwise, all while trying to tug on your emotional connection to Monty so that you won’t think.”

I’ve said it a thousand times so here’s a thousand and one: Just dig up his corpse. You’d be more honest. Fuck you and fuck your emotional manipulation,

As I demonstrated, your arguments mean nothing. You go in looking for confirmation of your feelings and thus ignore the ever growing mountain of evidence against you. Nothing you say matters because you’d say it no matter what. You coculd have avoided all of this by putting in less effort.

You choose to get angry. And so, you have no one to blame but yourself.

[theseerasures]

Re: that anon who asked about the shuffle step of the themes of sacrifice

I also found the ideological shift in the volume very interesting, and I think she most interesting bits are with Team RRAYNBOW. Like I think the dynamic between Yang and Ruby and their respective missions this volume is very interesting (if maybe a bit underdeveloped, atm at least). You said a little about it with Team JOYR in Chapter 7. Do you have anymore thoughts about the "shuffle step" in regards to that?

i’m gonna admit upfront that i find this question kind of perplexing, because i don’t know what “ideological shift” it could be alluding to when imo our heroes didn’t so much pivot (or shift, or shuffle step) ideologically so much as make a series of context-specific decisions according to what they felt in the moment they could live with, or would die for (don’t make me tap the sign, etc).

what i DO think might be helpful, though, is to lay out what was at stake in each of the weighty choices/discussions our heroes took part in, from the very beginning of the Long Night to the end of volume 8, to see what (if any) throughlines persist or change. so:

Cordially Invited (7.8) to Out in the Open (7.10): our heroes are all in accord. transparency (telling the truth to Robyn) and collaboration (working with/helping Mantle) are paramount, and Ruby specifically takes steps to remedy her own wavering in that earlier in the season, by letting Oscar tell the whole truth to Ironwood. what’s key about this run, though, is that our heroes aren’t calling the shots yet. they advocate for certain actions when advising Ironwood, but they still trust him to take charge of deciding Atlas/Mantle’s fate.

Gravity (7.11): the Big Shift in terms of status quo. our heroes (JNR more implicitly) remain in accord--abandoning Mantle is the line in the sand they refuse to cross. but what does RWBY advocate for, if not Ironwood’s plan? they all agree that the best thing to do is to stand their ground, but for what? Blake and Weiss are comparatively silent on that front, but Ruby and Yang are more explicit. Ruby makes her plea about Amity--that if they hold out long enough, they can do what they always planned, and unite the world, and get help. Yang’s argument is that Huntsmen and Huntresses don’t back down from a fight. (she’s also the first person to suss out that Amity isn’t ready for launch.) this difference is going to come up later.

The Enemy of Trust (7.13): Oscar makes his last individual plea to Ironwood. his reasoning, much like Blake’s (and presumably Weiss’), is simply that abandoning Mantle is a sacrifice of such magnitude that it becomes unconscionable. it’s wrong because it’s wrong, and Ironwood’s rebuttal that it’s pointless to argue about philosophy when Salem’s right on their doorstep, is dickish, but not incomprehensible. Oscar is still looking to retain the advisory capacity that Team Unwieldy Acronym has had for the entire season, and guide Ironwood to making the right call, but that bridge has already been burned. they have to decide the fate of Atlas/Mantle now if they want to save both.

Divide (8.1): The team is no longer in accord. Ruby and Yang recognize that though they agree about Ironwood, their reasons for not abandoning Mantle are different. Ruby’s looking at the big picture, both in terms of what they have to do for the world, and what the world can do for them. Amity looks to be the only obstacle to getting both and saving everyone. Yang thinks it’s pointless. Yang didn’t want to abandon Mantle because that’s just not what you do, but she has no expectation of fighting toward any good outcome. she’s gonna do what seems more readily achievable, which is saving whatever lives can be saved. Ren and Nora split along similar lines more acrimoniously, because Ren at this point is desperate for tangible success and Nora is...just as desperate for total consuming optimism. Blake throws her lot in with Ruby, Weiss abstains, remaining the most quiet on the fate of Atlas/Mantle despite being Atlesian. Jaune and Oscar, though they go with Yang, mostly go for pragmatic reasons.

Refuge (8.2) to Midnight (8.6), Yang’s Team: the plan to help with Mantle is almost immediately derailed when the Hound kidnaps Oscar. i’ve talked about JYR’s plea to Winter in War, but that of course is not the first time that team chooses the few over the many; they do that IMMEDIATELY after Oscar is kidnapped, when Fiona calls for their help and they--without even verbally consulting with each other--go for Oscar instead. in that moment the more proximal thing they can and need to achieve becomes rescuing their friend, whose captor was still in view. but crucially: as soon as they lose Oscar in Fault, and especially after they discover the Grimm River in Amity, JYR had been on their way back to Mantle, and presumably, back to the less impossible thing to do, the thing they promised the Happy Huntresses they’d help with. running into the AceOps and Salem’s invasion throws a monkey wrench into that plan. suddenly rescuing Oscar becomes possible (though not probable)...

War (8.7), Yang’s Team: but not if Ironwood blows up the Whale, whereupon the equation changes again because now doing nothing for Oscar means leaving Oscar to certain death. tbh the confrontation on the airship is about like fifteen different things at once, because the variables keep changing and everyone is having their own argument over whether to rescue Oscar, and why. Yang’s response once she hears about the bomb is mostly you can’t; it is once again just not what Huntresses do, with some personal stakes thrown in. for the AceOps it is about the weighing of lives, and how they can’t put the mission to save Atlas on hold for one life. Jaune is the one who thinks of an idea where they might be able to do one without delaying the other (the second time this season Jaune has suggested the “go for both” option), where they would be the only ones risking their lives, and no harm comes to the greater good. only then does Ren jump in and shift the argument to caring and friendship; that is to say, after the stakes have been lowered so it’s not Oscar vs. Atlas anymore. i don’t think it takes away from his big moment, though: we know from Fault that Ren has taken Yang’s challenge of “let’s do what we can do” and run with it, and come up with “and what we can do is nothing because we’re not ready and we get everything wrong,” so him vowing to do whatever we can here is important. the point is clear: Team Hero draws their strength from their friends, and they’re willing to die for each other...but the question of if they’d let the world burn for their friend is put off for now.

Strings (8.3) to War (8.7), Ruby’s Team: in contrast to Yang’s plan faceplanting at the first hurdle, Ruby’s plan...works. they accomplish their primary objective! but they had to pay a steep price, and the only immediate consequence of that victory was entirely negative. Nora threw so much of herself into Ruby’s optimistic gamble that she now has lasting scars, and if they had never gone to Atlas Command Penny would not have been hacked (so easily; she might have been regardless). Ruby successfully put the ball in the world’s court, but that the problem: the ball is in the world’s court, and the longer it stays there the less sure she is that help will come. and it IS just about the help they’ll receive by War; Salem batting away Atlas’ hard light shields has shifted the goalposts from “hope the other Kingdoms can prepare :/” to “BLAKE’S PARENTS CAN YOU PICK US UP???” the question of Atlas or Mantle rears its ugly head for the first time since Gravity, and this is the first time Weiss is the first one to advocate, and she says we can’t leave--which, not coincidentally, is also what RWBY said to Ironwood in Gravity. May’s argument, of course, is driven by far more compassion: the need in Mantle is greater, and having finished facilitating Ruby’s (and Robyn’s) plan she’s going to do what Yang decided to do, what Joanna wanted them to do, which is fight for every last life. there’s no longer any big wheels to turn, nor any big powers to convince; all they have to do is decide what they themselves will do, and who to fight for. and Weiss finally shows her hand here. she believes in not leaving Mantle behind, but when it comes to the faces she’d fight and die for, Weiss’ are still in Atlas. Blake and Ruby are the ones to abstain this time, and notably when Ruby tries to argue that they’re all in this together it’s much less effective, because...there’s nothing left for them to do together. Ruby is out of concrete solutions.

Witch (8.9): what goes easily missed here that in retrospect is very important is...Oscar kills Hazel. (which means that an Ozcarnation killed BOTH of the Rainart twins.) we all thought he doubled back to make a sacrifice play, and he did, but not for himself. he received Hazel’s verbal consent, and Hazel would have died regardless, but the point still stands. he had to kill Hazel to neutralize Salem, to buy them the time they desperately needed. an unsettling portent for what comes later, innit? it highlights what his own kidnapping, Nora’s injuries, and Penny’s hacking already illustrates, which is that they are now risking every inch of their body and souls in this fray, and it also illuminates the other part of that, which is that by continuing to throw themselves back into this conflict, they now control the fates of other people as well. Hazel trusted Oscar to make the right call, but Oscar had to make the call.

Risk (8.11): where we ultimately land with the splitting of teams is that: Yang’s team went out to achieve the easily graspable, and they ended up forging alliances they never anticipated and dealing a devastating blow to Salem. Ruby’s team went out to achieve what should have been much more difficult, and they did, but with little palpable impact beyond the negative. what comes out and blends exquisitely with their conversation about Summer is that yes, Ruby sent out the call to warn the world, because she believed in humanity and unity, but Ruby sent out the call because she wanted help. she wanted people--say, parental figures--to save her and tell her things would be okay, and she wanted back the innocence to believe them. Ruby didn’t ask to be the face of the war against Salem, and she most certainly does not want to be in charge of it; she has lived with the material consequences of her family being the centerpiece of that war for her entire life. the Hound reveal is the final twist in the knife of Ruby’s childhood, because now the figure on the highest pedestal in Ruby’s mind has been perverted to a malevolent specter, and if that’s the case there are no more adults. THEY have to be the adults now, and look what a terrible job she’s done with that. Yang’s response is that Ruby is not alone--either in her traumatic fall into adulthood, or in her choices not panning out as expected. all they can do is the best they can in the moment, and Yang’s probably going to keep defaulting to what feels more tangible to her, but that doesn’t mean she wants Ruby to stop going for pie-in-the-sky options, either. Summer is still Yang’s hero, which means Ruby is too. what matters most is that they remain responsive to the moment, and don’t get bowled over by despair when something inevitably go off the rails.

so given all these developments, what are we to make of the plan from Creation (8.12) to The Final Word (8.14)? we start with the archetypal Third Option, as championed by Ruby and Jaune: use the Staff to save Penny and Mantle, and Atlas along the way. but the priorities of the plan--civilians first, presumably even before the Relics or the Maiden powers (though the question of one of them or a Relic is really only answered by Winter, who does not speak for Team Hero)--have Yang all over them. we have to do this for Yang isn’t just because Yang’s gone, it’s because they know it’s what Yang would have wanted, and they will respect that. they made a Ruby n Jaune style Big Plan, but when that plan fell to pieces there was no time to think of a fourth, or fifth, or sixth option that would get everyone out, so they had to improvise and double down on what they all agreed was most important. the choice between their friends or the people could no longer be deferred, or augmented, so they chose. civilians, then the Relics and the Maiden powers, then each other. and when any of them wavered--Blake, Ruby, Jaune--someone else checked them, reminded them to trust and respect what they all committed to. they’re still drawing strength from each other, still dying for each other, but they acknowledge that they are not directing just their fates with their decisions anymore. they took a huge desperate gamble to save Atlas/Mantle, and it worked, but what they gambled with was their own lives. and they made themselves make peace with that--that they’d have to do what they can, everything they can, without hoping for salvation for themselves, even from friends or family.

in the end, what comes across just from doing a close reading of these moments is that RWBY’s views on sacrifice, logic vs. sentiment, the greater vs. the few, etc can’t really be plotted on a solid line. that’s why i can’t really think of what happened this volume as a palpable shift--because so many of these choices were context and character dependent. what i DO think happened with our heroes’ ethical beliefs (or “ideology” ig) is that they were tested across a sequence of stressful and traumatic situations, and as a result they had to compromise on a few things they hoped to never have to compromise in order to shore up defenses on what they were certain they could not live without, or would die for (or both! in the case of six of them). if they have to die like every other Huntsman in history so be it, but they refuse to be so cavalier with the lives of others. none of that is meant to be definitive, however: in-universe RWBY is far from over, and Team Hero is going to get to re-litigate and reexamine these questions from lots more angles, out-of-universe...RWBY is far from over, and the point of the show is not to provide an ethical rubric against which the audience can judge themselves and the characters. there are things--like y’know. genocide--that this show will always consider to be beyond the pale, but in terms of grayer complex questions it is content to simply feel out what is and is not allowable in each particular instance, without trying to resolve all options into One Correct Option.

because sometimes you do just have to sit with the discomfort of there not being one right choice or one golden rule, and sometimes you are awash in the consequences of not only your own actions but the actions of others. and then you have to keep going.

[sakura-83]

Things from Anne with an e that I feel like writing down

Season 1 Episode 6: Remorse Is the Poison of Life

1. Diana having to run through the dark with nothing but a lantern and quite reasonably tripping. I never really thought about how dark it would actually be out because there’s always light.., somewhere in a modern city. It’s dark but you can usually still see

2. Every time Anne and Diana are separated they end up reunited during some great tragedy and are like “I missed you so much!!” Like yeah that’s great but. Please focus

3. It’s terrifying how easily children could die before modern medicine. They still can die very easily and that’s still terrifying but back then there was no quick fixes or easily accessible help

4. “It’s an old wives tale.” “I might be one but not the other. Evidently one doesn’t have to be either thing to know it.”

5. Anne knowing how to treat croup because all of Mrs. Hammond’s sets of twins had it

6. “I was supposed to be a boy but when I wasn’t, they decided to keep and raise me.” “How extraordinary!”

7. Minnie May almost choking to death on her own phlegm and Anne ultimately saving her because there’s no way the doctor would’ve made it all the way from Soencervale in time

8. “I believe I need a brandy.”

9. It’s really interesting how much of the script comes straight from the book

10. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are white frosts, aren’t you?”

11. John Blythe’s love for adventure and how Gilbert undoubtedly sees it in Anne

12. Eliza apologizing for how she misjudged Anne

13. “My darling Diana”

14. “I can’t tie myself down to anything so unromantic as dishes at this thrilling moment!”

15. “Even aunt Josephine said she’d like to see you again, and she doesn’t like anyone.”

16. “Shes disinclined to stay home alone since her companion passed away.” “Her companion?” “Her best friend forever and ever.”

17. “Aunt Josephine never married. Neither of them did, they lived with each other their whole lives.” “I’d live with you forever if I could. But I know you’ll leave me the date you get married to some wealthy and handsome gentleman. I hate him already.” “How’s Gilbert?”

18. “It’s very likely Gilbert’s father isn’t going to get well, so it’s more than possible that when Gilbert finally comes back to school… he’ll be an orphan.”

19. The cut from that conversation to John Blythe’s funeral

20. Matthew grabbing Marilla’s arm because he knows how much john meant to her

21. Gilbert watching the snowflakes melt in his hand

22. Marilla’s flashback

23. Young Marilla teasing john

24. Him giving her the same hair ribbon she later gifts to Anne

25. Anne and Gilbert being just like their parents, mirroring their romance and yet achieving the love Marilla and John could never have

26. Anne trying to make Gilbert feel better but making it seem like it’s about her. I often find it hard to articulate my relation to others in a way that does sound like I’m relating and not like I’m making it about me

27. Aunt Josephine on a stroll in the woods

28. Anne’s ranting about her “extensive knowledge of being an orphan”

29. Her calling Gilbert a dumb boy and refusing to think about him

30. “Romance is a pesky business. No sense to be made of it.”

31. “May I enter your humble abode.” About Anne’s run down little shed

32. “I couldn’t be less interested in Gil- that boy!”

33. “Let your ambitions and your aspirations be your guide.” “But I have so many!”

34. “I’ve always wanted to be a bride, but I don’t really expect to be a wife.” “Interesting!” “So you see the conundrum.” “I do. I have the following thoughts to offer. First, you can get married any time in your life, if you choose to do so.” “That’s true-“ “And two, if you choose a career, you can buy a white dress yourself, have it made to order and wear it whenever you want.” “Why didn’t I think of that!? I love that idea! I’m going to be my own woman!” “I’m a proponent for making ones own way in the world.”

35. “If you become a doctor, perhaps you can discover a cure for old age.”

36. Anne calling aunt Josephine her new role model, as well as Marilla and Matthew

37. “I’m going to be the heroine of my own story.”

38. Marilla finding an old letter from John

39. The theme Unrequited Love playing during this scene

40. It’s fascinating when you come to recognize the instrumentals by name, the names actually have a lot of double meanings in relation to the show. Fire in The Town not only plays when there’s an actual fire, but also when Anne’s rumors about prissy set the town ablaze

41. “If the key to a mans heart is through his stomach-“ “Which it is!” “Then, we have to make sure that this is the best shepherds pie that Gilbert has ever had.”

42. Anne wanting a boy to loved for her brain and personality rather than her abilities to keep a home

43. “Don’t you think Gilbert looks even more handsome now that he’s sad?” “I didn’t notice.”

44. I just noticed aunt Josephines mourning clothes, I know she was grieving but I didn’t put two and two together

45. “Take the boy the godforsaken pie before I suffer a mental collapse.”

46. Anne rambling excitedly about Jane Eyre.

47. Anne almost spoiling the book, just like Gertrude used to do

48. Anne suddenly breaking down over death. I’ve done that before, far more frequently in middle school when I realized that we all die someday

49. “It must be awful beyond measure to lose someone that you love deeply. In a split second, a heartbeat, they’re gone forever… and there is nothing you can do to change it or bring them back…”

50. “Anne? You’re crying on the potatoes.”

51. “There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘I’m sorry for your loss’, Ruby. And I’m going to say it because I am.” “You’re just going to make it worse if you say that. His father!! Just died!!!” “That’s what people say when someone dies.” “I don’t want you to upset him.” “He’s already upset because his father just died!”

52. “We hope you like shepherds pie.” “Everyone LIKES shepherds pie 😡. We hope it’s a comfort to you, Gilbert.🥰”

53. Anne telling “but I would make a terrible wife!” And running out.

54. Matthew offering to help Gilbert get his farm back in order

55. Gilbert not wanting to be a farmer but having an entire farm shoved off on him when his only family does, despite being… 14 at most? 15 maybe?

56. Matthew losing all his crops when the Dal Marie sank

57. Billy wanting Gilbert back to control the “ugly orphan” and Gilbert defending Anne

58. “She’s smart, deal with it.”

59. Gilbert telling billy to read a book for once

60. “I’ll give you a tip, okay? I’m not your bud. And if you ever hassle Anne again, you’ll regret it.”

61. “What’s your problem?” “Ask me that again. No, seriously. Go ahead.” “Why you gotta be like that?” “Ask me!” “…what’s your problem?”

62. Gilbert throwing his stuff at billy to preoccupy his hands and THEN punching him straight in his stupid face

63. The boys are fighting!!!! And rolling around in the snow too that’s kind of funny looking

64. Gilbert beating billy in that fight

65. Marilla telling Gilbert about his father

66. All of Gilbert’s siblings died

67. Gilbert’s father taking him to Alberta before he died, where Gilbert was born

68. “You resemble him in many ways.”

69. “He asked you to go?” I’ll always be grateful to him for thinking I’d be brave enough. Obligation… can be a prison.”

70. Anne trying to write a letter to Gilbert apologizing for what she said

71. Anne visiting aunt Josephine for advice and accidentally interrupting her grieving

72. “Emotion is rarely convenient and often intolerable, but I find at the moment that I don’t mind it.”

73. “Grief is the price you pay for live, you see. So it’s alright.”

74. “You and I are not the marrying kind.” “Ah, but I was, in my way. And we had a full and wonderful life together, and I gave no regrets. That’s all you really have to decide Anne, to live a life without regrets.”

75. Anne kissing aunt Josephine on the cheek and running off to live said life

76. No Matthew don’t make that loan deal!!!

77. Anne sprinting to Gilbert’s house bit for the first time of many to come, being too late to reach him.

[brownandblackpearls]

🦇𝒯he  𝒱isitor (Alucard Tepes x BlackReader) Pt.3

PART 3 SUMMARY:

You’re given a lackluster tour of Dracula’s castle that adds more questions than it answers, yet your quarters are beyond admirable and enough to forget the mysteries for just tonight. His ice is slowly melting, but not enough for you to see anything certain. To help speed things along, you decide to be a friendly guest and cook breakfast for the both of you.

─── Alucard x black female reader

─── imagery + fiction

─── explicit smut

─── Fantasy, vampires, hurt/comfort, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, magic user, cute bats, gardening, cooking, cottagecore MC, castlecore Alucard.

☾ previous. ☾ next.

┌───────────━┿──┿━──────────┐

└───────────━┿──┿━──────────┘

Your host is as gracious as the circumstances allow, you begin to realize. As immense and as glorious as the few parts of the castle you’ve seen are, your host confides that they were once even grander. He speaks briefly of there being a battle of sorts. He doesn’t say when or why, despite prodding, but it helps to fill in some of the gaps you have.

Spying some of the deeper gouges and gashes in the tough stone, you can’t help but wonder exactly what he was battling.

“You won the battle, then...?” You ask.

“Something like that,” he says simply enough, but it reads rather ominously to your ears.

You pause as you follow him, trying your best not to sound too afraid. You hope no enemies from this past battle still sneak about...

“So it’s just you and I, here…?”

He turns on you slowly, and a familiar dread rises in your gut as you realize you’ve angered him once again. Unfortunately for you, you’re not sure how. His features appear natural and still, but what you are feeling under your skin hints at the truth to his demeanor. You catch a hint of fang as he speaks, and you wonder if it’s intentional.

“Yes. Does that suit your plans?”

You hesitate, unsure.

“I…’plans’? I don’t—“

“—Allow me to assist you. Silver is a trifle. Stakes are laughable. Garlic does nothing, and no holy symbol nor water—no matter what wayward priest you find to bless it—will help your cause. Sunlight is a pleasure to my skin, which heals from fire, knife wounds, and all other maladies in conception, if you even manage to pierce it. If a Belmont had trouble making me bleed, you surely will. The few things that I am susceptible to, are magic, decapitation, and stakes, but then again, who isn’t? I implore you to try though, and wish you luck. Believe me, you will need it.”

Like before, as if you’ve been transported back behind the walls of books, he is upon you, and you cannot help but tremble. The ruby red is back, flickering just behind his sunstorm eyes. You are beside yourself but you do your best to think quickly as to what nonexistent offense he’s percieved.

‘Does he think I mean to kill him? How even could he assume such a thing…? From me, of all people...?’

“I do not wish to make an attempt on your life,” you say slowly, clearly. “My magic is very poor, but not my behavior towards hosts kind enough to allow me in their homes.” You put a heavy emphasis on the ‘host’ portion, hoping to remind him of his promise from before.

“Enlighten me then,” he asks in a tone that seeks anything but enlightenment. “Why do you want to know if we are alone, if not to better plan something that would require isolation?”

You find yourself frowning.

“You…you completely misunderstand me, sir…” you begin, stepping back. “I just…I asked if we were alone because….I…I…”

Something in your face must call out to his reason, because the red drains out from his eyes and he steps away, reeling back. The grieved look returns.

“You’re afraid,” he realizes suddenly, aloud. “You want to ensure nothing else lurks in these walls.”

You nod, happy to be comprehended, for once.

“Yes,” you insist. “The damage from the battle...I see it, and I think that your foes were very strong. I only hope they were all defeated and that it is just you and I here, alone, sir—er, Alucard.”

He nods, looking somewhat embarrassed now.

“It is only us, in these walls.”

You sigh happily, glad to have your fears discarded. The castle was still scary and intimidating of course, as large as it was. It felt as though something had to be tiptoeing somewhere around in the fortress, yet...he would know the place better than you, wouldn’t he...? And if he says its just you two, then hopefully that is so.

“Good,” you sigh. 

He makes no move at the sound of his name in your mouth, but he does think on your words before bowing his head ever so lightly.

“I apologize,” he admits. “I keep...jumping to conclusions. I made you fret after giving my word. Forgive me.”

You watch him with pleasant surprise, the corner of your mouth quirking up. 

So there were manners somewhere in there.

“You’re forgiven. I’m sure you must have had a rough go of assassins, being who you are and all.”

“I’ve had my share,” he admits, before turning to advance through the corridor. You don’t have time to think about his ‘share’, trying to keep up. You know he can move far faster than he is showing now, and you appreciate the effort he makes to go at a human pace so that you may follow closely behind. 

Deep down, you are still worried about what lays in the castle. You do feel safer, knowing something supernatural like him is at your side, and vowed to make sure no harm befalls you.

“Well,” you continue conversationally, trailing after him, “thank you for soothing my concerns. I feel all the safer for it.””

“...Odd,” he comments. “Hm?”

“You, feeling safer alone in Dracula’s castle, with a dhampir.”

You chuckle.

“I suppose it is odd when you put it that way. Just work on that temper of yours, and I’ll really be right as rain!” The jest is funny enough for you, but it doesn’t land so well with your present company.

He scowls, but the real heat is gone. Energized from knowing he is bound by promise and that there are no others here, you feel bold enough to place an assuring hand on his arm. 

He feels strong and solid, like stone. He stiffens before pulling away, peering down at you.

You try your best not to look too hurt. You smile assuringly instead.

“Believe me, Alucard. I’m not here to try and do you in. I mean, look at me! You think I’m foolish enough to attempt such a thing on you when I could hardly handle that crowd of ruffians outside?”

You laugh then, slapping a hand on your leg. It is the bare one from the rip in your dress, and the smack is much louder than you anticipate. It’s enough to silence you into meek embarrassment.

Alucard simply watches you before turning around and leading you on.

You follow him silently now, and you quickly find that the tour is rather lacking. He says little about the winding halls you are led through, and you can’t help but wonder the stories of each hallway, of each room. Will you ever learn of them?

The place is monstrous, and so the soles of your feet are a bit sore by the time you reach what Alucard regards as your quarters.

“You will stay here,” he gestures past a large emblemed door into a wide room. 

You peer inside, finding a beautifully canopied bed, heavy curtains attached to what you can only assume is a gigantic window. There is a large bookcase, a fireplace, an armchair, a desk, and a small door leading into another room. 

“That is your bathing room,” he notes.

When you stare at him curiously, he explains.

“My father possessed immense technological advancements,” he says quickly, as if he’s explained it several times before. Perhaps he has.

‘So his father is Dracula,’ you think. ‘But the stories of Dracula were much more…gruesome and cruel. If this is his son...this man is certainly scary when roused, but…’

His deep voice breaks you out of your reverie.

“The washing room has a basin called a ‘tub’. There is also a bidet with a smaller basin called a toilet. No need for outhouses or bringing up jugs of water here. We have plumbing.”

Now, you’re utterly confused.

Alucard sighs.

“Just…follow me. I’ll show you.”

You do just that and watch, engrossed, as your host thoroughly lays out and points to every faucet, knob, and all of their uses. Before long, you ascend from a common traveling woman to an expert in an alternate world knowledgeable on things such as ‘plumbing’.

You beam at the tub and sink, too giddy with joy to hide it. You bounce a little, your hands drawing to your chest excitedly.

Alucard levels a raised brow at you, pausing.

“...Are you alright?”

You nod happily, twirling in the bathroom to face him.

“This place is incredible! Plumbing! Who would’ve thought? There was almost something like this I saw over the Eastern seas, but the people there called them…acq..acqueducts! They were these large beams that delivered their water…oh, but no matter! My hair! Goodness, it will be leagues easier…”

Alucard glances at your crown of curled, kinky locks before refocusing on you.

“How did you manage, before?”

“Oh, ponds. Streams. Rivers. The seaside. That sort of thing,” you say absently. “The chill of the water did wonders for my mane, but I felt like an icicle the entire time. And you say I can have heated, freshwater through these devices? I can’t lie, I’m ecstatic!”

Alucard nods shortly at that, watching you curiously, but seemingly unable to share your interest in the fixtures. Perhaps you’re more of an interest for him at this point than the plumbing. You eyeball his own healthy mane and assume he’s long been used to such luxuries.

“Oh, but…can I wash my garbs in the tub, too?”

Alucard tilts his head at that before realization sparks in his eyes.

“No. No, you’ll wear something else. That’s fairly ruined.”

You silently leave out the part that it is partially his fault, but he seems to catch on anyway.

“I…” he tries stiffly. “I apologize again. For before.”

“Oh?” You respond innocently. “For what? Scaring me? Yelling at me? Threatening my life? Tripping me?”

He sinks a little lower with each act. 

“All of it.”

“Oh! Well, then you’re forgiven. As much as I appreciate the apology, I have a feeling that this ‘tub’ will more than make up for it.”

Alucard seems to relax at that, showing you the cabinets with everything you’ll need.

“I’ll…” he trails off. “I’ll find you some clothing.”

He turns to leave, but you reach out to gently grip the tuft of white blouse peeking out from his sleeve. He turns, watching you sharply. 

He does not pull away, though. You call it progress.

“Alucard,” you say. “Thank you for your hospitality. Sincerely.”

He looks to the floor instead of your eyes—as if he’s afraid of what he’ll find there—before gently pulling away and wordlessly leaving the room.

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You are lucky enough to find interesting soaps and good-smelling candles before working the bath. With some maneuvering and much delight, you are able to conjure bubbles through use of items you’ve scavenged from the cabinets. You find washcloths, sponges, brushes, and an assortment of other things.

You want to wait for your host to return first, but as the minutes continue to pass you realize you need to take advantage of the hot water before it cools.

You shed your clothes, undo your hair, and step into the water-filled basin.

“God…” you whisper, goosebumps rising on your skin.

It feels incredible.

You sink into the water, a smile on your face. You haven’t felt something this good since traveling to hot springs in your more daring adventures. Back then, you had to evade the cultist locals for a hint of heated water. This was so different, as it was your own personal hot spring whenever you desired!

You sink deeper into the water for a bit before beginning to scrub and lather your journey off of you. You decide to empty and fill the tub once more, just because you can, and bathe a little more before feeling pristine to your liking.

Stepping out, you massage in some leftover body oil from your pack. You clean the basin before peeking out into your room.

There is no one present, but a new, soft nightdress lays comfortably on the chair. Your fireplace is even lit.

You smile to yourself as you step out and lift the nightdress, assessing it.

“So his bark is louder than his bite,” you decide aloud.

You change swiftly, and despite being in such an strange situation, once in the massive bed, you find sleep has come right on your heels. Your eyes almost slide shut until you hear a knock at your door.

You open your eyes and slip out of bed. You push open your door—which has a heavy lock, you now realize—to see Alucard, in low lantern light, gazing back at you.

“I trust you found everything,” he says, rather than asks. You hear the question for what it is.

“Yes,” you smile. “Thank you.”

He considers your expression for a long moment before nodding his affirmation.

“Hm. Very well. There is a lock on the door of your room…if that’s any consolation to any fears you may have. Feel free to use it. Good night then,” he says, turning to leave.

“Alucard?” You call.

When he waits for you without turning to face you, you speak.

“Where will you be staying?”

‘If I need you,’ you think. 

You soon realize that this may become a situation where Alucard hears something in your speech that is not really there. With a solemn look, and the absence of an anger just as disturbing as its presence, he points to a door just down the hall from you. You would be pleased if not for the expression on his face.

“Just there,” he says. 

You realize that due to the two misunderstandings being him assuming you want to kill him, that this is likely what this third time revolves around. 

“Alucard,” you try, “I don’t intend to condescend, but you must know, I only ask for my own concern. I’m happier to know that my host is nearby. I meant no ill will by it. I’d be a poor assassin, remember?”

“Yes,” he answers quietly, as if he really is just recalling it. “I remember.”

“You’d hear me before I even entered, I bet!”

“I would.”

“So there is nothing to worry about…right…?”

His stiff shoulders finally seem to relax an inch. 

“I suppose. In any case…You are not to enter my domain, under any circumstances, outside of imminent danger. It would be…unwise of you.”

You nod, unsure of what exactly he means but positive he that he does mean what he says.

“I will see you in the morning...?” 

He pauses at that, looking somewhat bewildered. 

“I…yes, you will.”

“Alright!” You nod, pleased. “Good night then.”

Closing the door, you turn to the large, firelit room and beam.

It is a princess’s quarters…no, a queen’s! You will live lavish while you’re here, it seems.

You lay on the soft mattress under the thick covers, knowing pleasure you’ve never felt before until sleep takes you gently into the night.

───────────━┿──┿━──────────

When you wake, it is before the sun has fully broken into the sky. Pretty blues and pinks spill across the sky outside your window, so different from the cold colors of the day before. Rising in your nightgown, you spy a dress on the chair of your room. Alucard must have entered in your sleep. Had you locked the door...? You cannot recall. Under normal circumstances, traveling on the road, you would have never forgotten such a thing as utilizing a lock. For some reason, perhaps last night you felt you didn’t need to. 

You absently palm your neck for pinpricks of the vampiric sort, and find nothing.

‘Good enough for me, then.’

The dress lays before you, waiting

It is different, without any tears, and deep in its color. You pause before adorning it, turning this way and that in the looking glass before attempting to do something with your hair. 

‘I look rather stunning in this. Why does he have such nice women's clothing lying about, I wonder...?’

Once complete, you decide to do something as equally nice for your host as this dress was for you.

“Breakfast! I’ll make us breakfast. Dhampirs can eat food, right…? Now, if only I could find the kitchen…”

You spy your basket by the door. Another gift from your late-night visitor.

You pick up your newly returned basket from the room’s entrance, flipping over the blanket to spy your stolen vegetables still intact. 

You leave your rooms with a smile that slowly falls.

‘He said not to disturb him…perhaps I can find the kitchens myself? They must be on the first level, maybe the underground chambers, if anything. That’s how all castles are. I’d better start now if I hope to finish in time.’

You’re certain you will get lost, but you have a feeling that your host can easily find you again.

You pause, realizing something.

‘I hope I don’t find bottles of blood or something lying around…or something else’

On that sobering thought, you strap your dagger’s hilt tighter to your thigh. Alucard said you were both alone, but it couldn’t hurt to be vigilant.

You venture out and do your best to recreate the inverse of Alucard’s path to the great hall. After several turns and rerouting, you finally begin to recognize the way back to the grand hall. It takes far longer than you anticipated, and your soles begin to complain a little once you find the grand staircase.

With some exploration on the main floor, you finally come across a door leading into what appears to be a small kitchen. The floors are clean as are the pots and pans hanging from their hooks on the walls. You spy plenty of utensils, knives, and what appears to be another basin...plumbing. You will ask Alucard the name later.

You set down the basket, pleased to have reached your goal, and get to work.

“Can’t have just a vegetable scramble. He’s a literal dhampir, and I could use some protein.”

You can't find any aprons about, and so you wrap what looks to be a tablecloth around your pretty dress. No reason to ruin it with the trials of breakfast.

You hunt for eggs, meat, nuts, and anything of the protein type. After some pillaging, you are able to find all three and get to work. The eggs are small, and the meat is fox, rabbit, and fish instead of the typical villager fare of cows and pigs, but you make it work. You wash your hands and begin to carve out fillets, prep vegetables from your basket, and luck upon some spices. You search for oil, but can only find butter, and so you do your best with it.

Soon enough, the kitchen begins to fill with the scents and fumes of a bountiful breakfast. You plate the spiced eggs, the braised meat, the sautéed vegetables, and fill a pitcher with water. You think about finding the secret garden nearby once more to perhaps make juice from berries and fruits, or even preserve. Turning to the wood table, you set everything down before finding your final item.

The loaf of bread is well hidden, but not well enough. It is a little stale, but not enough to discourage. You claim it and cut it before setting it out on the table as well.

Turning to wash your hands one final time, you are unsurprised to find Alucard stalking in the doorway of the kitchen when you turn back around.

“What are you doing...?” he grouses, clearly just having recently awoken.

“Cooking us breakfast,” you sass, “you’re welcome, by the way. Oh, uh...you can eat food, right...?”

Alucard’s sleepy demeanor slowly fades as he nods, his interest growing as the smells of food clearly begin to assault him and cause wonders for his mood.

“Well?” You say, undoing the tablecloth-apron and taking a seat for yourself. “What are you waiting for? Sit with me, let’s eat!”

───────────━┿──┿━──────────

AN: Do not under any circumstances copy, repost, or edit any of my work. If you see someone do so, please let me know.

☾ previous. ☾ next. 

☾ check my blog for more imagines.

[dragynkeep]

rwby is soo lazy with their romances it always starts off onesided and then suddenly those characters are soulmates (a/rkos, r/enora, and the 🐝). Nobody breaks up they just aren’t hanging out anymore (ice/berg, black/sun). We don’t get characters talking about crushes or feelings they just stand next to each other. Then characters who might be ace/aro (ren, ruby) will get shoved into a romance because one character has a crush on them. (r/enora & rose/garden)

It’s weird that no one even tries dating first. Pyrrha spent most of her time alive pining after Jaune, who didn’t even know because he was pining after Weiss, who actively wasn’t interested and was pining after Neptune, who was just a hoe. None of the relationships start with explicit mutual interest, they just kiss and suddenly they’re deeply in love, when relationships aren’t like that?

Renora might be underdeveloped, and the two aren’t much without the other, but at least their relationship was at a point where it could be a good relationship should they decide. Ren and Nora are already close friends, they spent years living together, and even though it’s another case of one sided pining on Nora’s side, Ren at least shows that he’s closer to Nora and isn’t actually interested in anyone else.

V4 was actually great for Renora, because it developed Ren past his mysterious personality, gave us backstory for both him and Nora, and showed that their relationship is actually one of the healthiest. Even though they’re always together, Nora can tell when Ren is upset and is emotionally mature enough to help him with dealing with his emotions and getting space so he can calm down. 

They have moments where they argue, but it showed that despite this, they do love each other, and the moment at the end of the volume where they held hands had me thinking that Ren was finally telling Nora that he does share her feelings through his actions, aka holding her hand and keeping her close. 

Not much changed about their dynamic but it really didn’t need to. V7 didn’t need this forced drama and actively ruined what made Renora great in V4.

And don’t get me started with BB. I’ve already said plenty about BB. 

[kitkatopinions]

I still can’t believe that people try so hard to defend RWB sitting around drinking tea, when even if they did give a good reason for it and even if it wasn’t problematic of them... It’d still be a bad writing choice.

Like, everything that happens in the show RWBY was specifically crafted and enacted by the writers, Team RWB aren’t real people in a bad situation, they’re fictional characters who have had their steps and circumstances planned out by writers who are meant to make them protagonists.

So during the first time that the main antagonist enters the fray, the writers plotted out circumstances specifically to keep what should be three out of the four main characters from interacting with or confronting her. The writers specifically invented the circumstances and story that leads three out of the four main characters to do very little to help anyone for literal episodes. Whether or not they were protecting Nora or avoiding arrest or just didn’t have the time (despite all of those being weak excuses for their lack of action imo,) the point is that they got sidelined hard on purpose by the writers who created those circumstances on purpose.

Everything from Ironwood being against them, the separation of the teams, the Ace Ops trying to bring in Penny, Amity being suddenly retconned into being ready to launch, Nora being injured, Weiss taking them to Schnee Manor, Oscar and Team JRY being involved and going to the Whale, May arguing with RWB, Penny crashing, Whitley coming up with at least something for them to do, the Hound attacking, everyone deciding to meet up at the Manor, Penny’s hack, all of that was something the writers did and chose to do and it kept Team RWB barely involved with the central plot and barely helping anyone.

And yes, it makes Team RWB seem selfish, and ill-prepared, and over their heads as character. It does. But it also was boring and made them seem less involved and less important than Team JRY, which is really bad considering that this show has a history of acting like Jaune is the protagonist instead of Ruby, and the end that the writers also specifically crafted was also bad where they removed all of Team RWBY from the finale at varying stages and put the focus on Jaune and Winter instead.

Why do people try so hard to defend Ruby and many of her teammates being purposefully sidelined in their own show?

[whitleyschn33]

Color in RWBY’s Designs

I’ve been trying to reblog this post for a good 10 minutes, and Tumblr just refuses to let me, and I don’t think I’m blocked, so @strqyr​ , have a reply

...

Okay, ignoring the out-of-left-field (hah) pivot to politics that cropped up in the comments -

I’m not an artist, but I do follow a few that discuss character design and have attempted some recolors myself, and when it comes to the various designs and colors of the RWBY girls, it’s not so much about the in-universe importance of color, it’s about the more meta principles of character design. Once again, I’m not the most qualified person to talk about this, so excuse me if I get something wrong or ramble.

In visual mediums, a character’s design, more specifically their silhouette and their colors, is what makes them stand out and memorable to an audience; in a lot of cartoons and anime, you’ll likely be able to recognize characters by their designs long before you remember their names, and even if you don’t know their names, seeing the silhouette or even color palette of that character can bring their image to your mind. For example, I haven’t seen an episode of Sailor Moon in my life, but show me Usagi’s silhouette, and I can tell you exactly who that is. I can show you this, and I would bet that 99% of you can tell me what character this is meant to represent despite it literally just being 5 rectangles.

(On a slight tangent, in action shows, colors and the smart placement there-of are doubly important, as they help with keeping track of a character as they move through a cluttered environment and interact with other characters, and keep track of how they move their bodies in that space. To use a specific example from RWBY itself, check out the Nevermore fight from Volume 1 - despite all the debris flying around the screen and the amount of wide shots, it’s easy to keep track of how the characters move around the screen. Yang’s gauntlets help direct your eyes to her punches, and the splash of red in Weiss’s collar makes sure she doesn’t turn into a white blob moving around the screen.)

RWBY specifically is a show that quite literally advertised itself and its character on the premise of color. The show is named not just after the main characters, but the main characters’ colors. The first trailers were the Red, White, Black, and Yellow trailers. Their original designs, while of course using other colors in the palettes, give an overall impression of red, white, black, and yellow, making the characters pop against the stark black, red, and white backgrounds of the trailers, as well as stand out against the background characters that were literally empty black voids of silhouettes. Their initial character designs are tied completely to them representing a specific color, and this color gimmick also makes the girls stand out as characters. Ruby’s red cloak and ruffles, Weiss’s white side ponytail and dress, Blake’s black bow and tuxedo vest, and Yang’s fiery yellow hair and gauntlets are instantly recognizable from a glance, and that’s a sign of good design that makes them distinct.

So, when you get to the later volumes and suddenly the characters are wearing less and less of their original, iconic colors on top of getting new silhouettes, it makes them start looking less and less recognizable as the characters they were originally designed to be, and more like completely different characters. Lets look at Blake and Weiss as an example. If you’d never seen RWBY, could you tell me if these were the same characters?

Alright, let’s fill in the details.

They look like two completely different pairs of characters. It’s not even the clothes themselves, but the colors and shapes of their clothes combined with the radically different hairstyles make the V7 designs look very much unlike the original designs. The girls got alternate outfits in V2, but they all fit the general silhouettes and color schemes of their typical outfits, and were still very much recognizable as the main team, just with new clothes. Such a drastic shift in what types of clothes and the colors they wear in V7, on the other hand, makes them look like different character designs. If you’re going to change what a character is wearing to something very different, keeping the colors consistent helps with keeping them recognizable as the character they are.

Now, changing the design of your character beyond the specific clothes they wear isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Characters change as they progress through a story, and in visual media, changes to character design can be used to signify how they’re changing or how they’re reacting to their environment and new situations. For example, in the S2 premire of Avatar, Zuko cuts off his distinguishing topknot to represent his fall from a Fire Nation prince to an outlaw on the run, and in season 3, the GAang don red Fire Nation clothes as a disguise, ditching their usual blue, orange, and green clothing. In the Owl House, Amity dyes her hair purple to represent her making her own choices rather than letting her family control her life (and I picked this up from gif sets, without having even seen the show). Design changes, even to hair and color, can be used to represent change - and RWBY has managed to do this fairly well in the past! For example, Weiss’s V4 design is very different from her original design - her sleeves and collar are tight rather than poofy, her colors are muted and overrun with greys and blues, her whites are mostly hidden and her red is nowhere to be seen. This works, though, because it represents Weiss’s current situation - she’s being controlled by her father, her individuality represented by her whites and reds being driven out, and her dress is mostly tight against her wrists and neck, like shackles and being chocked. It’s a good way of showing a character’s changed situation, while keeping her recognizable from her side ponytail and poofy skirt remaining the same.

The latest redesigns of Team RWBY, however, don’t do this. They change radically, in color, hair, and clothing shape, and there’s no clear reason why. Why do they change how they look so drastically? What prompted them to style their hair so differently, to cut it so short? Why have they decided to choose different colors to wear? To circle back to the initial post, what part of their character development has changed them from the color they were representing to the color they’re now representing?

For more specific question/examples - what prompted Blake to cover herself in a heavy white coat in V4, when she was heading to a tropical island to recover? Why does she wear a bright white coat for official Huntress business when she’s meant to be a ninja? Why does she cut her hair so short? Why does Weiss cover herself in blues and greys in V7 when blues and greys were used to show her unhappiness and imprisonment by Jacques, rather than returning to lots of whites? Why does she go from a sleek ponytail to a thick heavy braid? Why does Ruby replace her cape and start styling her hair differently? Why does she go from a poofy skirt with ruffles to a very sleek, low volume skirt? Why does Yang not wear any yellow anymore? Why do none of them seem to wear anything suited for the cold? None of these questions have real answers. We can speculate all day, but at the end, that would still just be speculation.

Why does Lillie in Pokemon change her hair and clothes? To prove that she’s not just something for her mother to control and dress up to her ideal of beauty; that Lillie can make her own choices and is ready to stand on her own two feet and do what needs to be done, rather than relying on Repels and the player character.

Why does Blake cut her hair and start wearing so much white? ....

Why does Persona 5′s Akechi’s palette switch from bright white, reds, and golds to dark blacks and purples? To show the tearing down of the Detective Prince façade to the true darkness underneath.

Why does Weiss start wearing so many dark blues and greys? ....

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. Things just change on RWBY, key aspects of their designs like their hair and colors, and for the most part, there just seems to be no reason given to change. I’m not saying things like colors can never change, clearly they can, but for character design, especially in a show so heavily focused on colors and how characters are represented by their colors, it’s not a thing that should be taken lightly; if a character has grown so dramatically that the manner in which they express themselves as a character has changed, like the original poster is implying it can, it should be clear to see why this character has changed in this manner.

Without a good reason for it to change, it feels unnatural, like the character isn’t the same character - so when RWBY’s colors seem to be changing without good reason, creating designs that don’t look right for the character they’re meant to be in the situations they’re meant to be in, it causes people to want to revert back to the original palettes. Not because they’re denying individuality of the characters, but because the characters are no longer designed like the individuals they once were, and artists want to bring that individuality and striking design back through the use of the colors these characters use to define themselves.

[samadiw]

Knickers - Part 02 - Red Knickers ❤

Hermione stares at the ceiling and smiles.

She feels rather hot and flustered

Being Head Girl meant she had her own room and tonight she was grateful for just that.

Slipping her hand inside the waistband of her night shorts she touches herself to the mental image of a handsome platinum blonde.

Truth be told, the fact that he saw her knickers made her wet, it excited her and she had plans to keep the ball rolling.

Slytherin green, done!

Gryffindor red, coming right up!

She thanked Merlin for shaving her bits and mowing the law so to speak, despite the lack of sexual activity she still kept herself smooth as baby's backside and by the looks of it, it paid off.

Draco played with his wand, orange sparks flew off the end and hit Theo square in the face.

T : "Hey! Watch it."

D : "Sorry, mate."

T : "You've been acting fucking weird all day."

T : "Are you fucking someone new?"

Draco wished he was fucking the witch he couldn't stop thinking about.

God damn those creamy smooth thighs, he would give his inheritance to have them wrapped around his waist.

What he wouldn't give to pound into her like a fucking jack hammer.

T : "Draco?"

T : "Malfoy?"

Would he never be able to finish a bloody daydream? He planned on getting rough with their darling Head Girl.

Something deep within told him that she would love every filthy fucking second of it.

D : "Hmm...will you fuckers stop bugging me."

T : "Calm your tits, mate, you want to play a game of chess?"

D : "Nah, I'm going to sleep."

Sleep didnt come easy, a certain Gryffindor princess kept invading his thoughts.

Hermione felt great, true to her word she fished out the red silk thong she bought last Christmas.

It was an impulsive buy, you know, just in case a gentleman decided to have his wicked way with her.

Gentleman?

How bloody ironic, she was wearing it to entice the ultimate Slytherin prat, a gorgeous extremely fuckable prat.

Hermione wondered if he was packing and whether the rumours were true?

Draco shoved Theo jovially and they walk into the Great Hall in high spirits.

Carefully, Draco takes the same seat as the day before and braves a look towards the Gryffindor table.

Fuck, she was staring at him.

A smirk greets him, she was laughing at him or was she waiting for him?

Why else would she plonk herself in the same place where he got ample view of her twat.

Granger stares at him unashamed and bold, fuck, that itself was enough to get him hard.

Hermione cocks her head to the side, bites her lip and subtly points downwards.

Draco raises a brow in question.

D : "What the bloody fuck is she doing?"

T : "You say something, mate?"

D : "Yeah, umm, this toast is fucking fantastic."

T : "Er...yeah sure, toast."

Blaise slides into the seat next to Theo, a sloppy grin adornes his face.

T : "Ah, good morning, Blaise and where pray tell have you been?"

B : "Encouraging unity among the houses."

Draco and Blaise high five.

T : "Who the fuck?"

B : "A gentleman never tells, Nott."

T : "Well, you need a fucking shower, you smell like Goyles armpit."

Ginny engages Hermione in conversation.

Draco coughs loudly and purposely drops his quill.

B : "Let me get that...."

D : "Don't you fucking dare."

B : "Ookaaay....."

Draco bends to retrieve the quill and there it was, Hermione Grangers silk covered cunt.

Has he ever seen anything so glorious? Doubtful.

Salazar, he couldn't afford to get this hard.

Was that a bloody lion on the front?

Fuck, she was hot.

Her skin looked so fucking delectable, when the time came, he was going to devour her whole.

His cock screams bloody murder, definitely need to wank before class.

Draco emerges and Theo and Blaise stare at him oddly

T : "Did you take a bloody nap down there?"

B : "You are behaving rather strangely, even by your standards."

D : "Fuck off."

T : "Come on, let's get to class."

Hermione adjusts her skirt and catches Draco's eyes rove over her hungrily.

She pushes her tits out, winks and makes her way to class.

B : "You coming, Drake?"

D : "Go on gents, need to visit the little boys room, I'll catch up with you."

Draco rounds the corner intent on getting himself off to the image of Granger bouncing on his cock but instead he makes the turn and crashes right into her.

H : "What the fuck, Malfoy?"

What the fuck indeed.

A petrified 1st year takes the opportunity and scurries away like a frightened mouse.

Draco does a quick look around, grabs Hermione's wrist and drags her into an empty classroom.

H : "What are you...."

D : "Ssshhhh...."

He traces her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb and an involuntary moan escapes her ruby red lips.

Kiss her, fool. She's begging for it.

Draco brings his face close to Hermione's and rasps.

D : "I enjoyed the show."

Hermione moves back and eyes the faint outline of his bulge through the bulky robes and grins.

H : "I can tell."

She closer the gap between them and cups his package over the material, her fingers tease his stiffened shaft.

Draco throws his head back and groans.

D : "Fuck..."

In a sugary sweet voice, Hermione muses.

H : "I'm sorry, Malfoy, did I do something wrong?"

Lost to pleasure, Draco struggles to string words together.

D : "N..n..no..."

Malfoy feels larger than average and Hermione feels a sudden wetness between her thighs, it's been awhile since she's had sex.

Hermione starts to stroke him, slowly at first but when her movements turn urgent Draco grabs her wrist and pushes her back.

D : "What the fuck are you playing at, Granger?"

H : "I didn't start this, Malfoy."

D : "Well, I didnt plan on seeing your knickers, maybe you should keep your legs together and not lure unsuspecting wizards into forbidden fantasies."

H : "You can always choose not to look."

D : "Fuck that, I look because it's so damn gorgeous and I wont lie, it's been a rather kinky fantasy of mine."

H : "To see me in my knickers or fuck me?"

Draco swallows hard, who was this woman? Who ever it was, he liked her, clearly Granger was possessed by someone else.

D : "Both, I want to spread you out and...."

Hermione cuts him off.

H : "We have class, Malfoy, we mustn't be tardy."

Her eyes linger on his erection.

H : "I trust you can finish yourself off."

D : "You can finish me off."

H : "I don't think so, I'm not in a mood anymore, besides, I'm late for class."

D : "Don't be a bloody bitch."

H : "Well, you shouldn't have stopped me earlier, I wanted to deep throat and suck you off."

His knees almost give out.

Now she tells him, well done, you fucking idiot.

His cock was ready to take off, he palms it and in full view of her starts to unzip.

Hermione reluctantly turns to leave, it would work well in her favour to keep him at bay.

D : "Same time tomorrow?"

Hermione smiles mischievously.

H : "Definitely, the lucky colour is yellow."

D : "Argh, yellow? You do take this house unity thing seriously.

H : "Have a good wank, Malfoy."

Draco takes his cock out, wraps his long fingers around the impressive girth and starts to work it.

Hermione stares at it and licks her suddenly dry lips, definitely larger than average.

Her reaction to seeing his dick amuses him.

D : "See something you like?"

Hermione yawns pointedly.

H : "Nothing I haven't seen before."

Liar liar pants on fire, like the rest of him, his cock was perfection.

D : "Fuck off, Granger, unless you want to stay and help me."

H : "Maybe some other time, toodles."

D : "Teasing cunt...argh...fuck...yes."

[itsclydebitches]

Yang forgetting Ironwood helped her so she willingly made the decision to rat him out to Robyn (which she then “forgot” to blame Ruby for the whole mess, and then “forgot” that to argue with Ren when he wanted them ALL to take responsibility) is one of the reasons you are most definitely right about the show just forgetting those civilians who got blasted off the rainbow road.

You know, RWBY's tendency to "forget" lots of different things aside, this list really emphasizes why canon!Yang (not fanon!Yang, still love her) has steadily become one of the least likable characters in the series for me. A summary of her major character beats would include:

Adores her "Super Mom" and is supposedly defined by both this loss and the need to help raise her little sister, but doesn't mention her again until Volume 8

Admits she has no reason to be a huntress other than liking adventure, but is never forced to confront this and figure out what she actually wants out of life, not even when the fate of the world is suddenly attached to her choices

Loses her arm and goes through a long arc to accept this new part of her, only to announce later that it's just "extra" and doesn't matter. This indifference includes ignoring the community she's now a part of/the disabled man who greatly assisted her, as well as the sudden disappearance of PTSD

Supposedly spends her entire life, since she was a toddler getting lost in the woods, searching for her biological mother only to decide that she only cares about her sister now

Listens to her biological mother anyway. She has no reason to trust her, claims to hate her, is outright told to question the information she's given... yet takes her perspective at face value, to the extent that she comes into Haven raring to accuse Ozpin

Demands "no more lies or secrets" from him even though, at this point, Ozpin has not lied or kept secrets from her. The transformation was Qrow's secret to divulge, along with his semblance

Appears to be grappling with Blake leaving at the end of Volume 3, but everything is fine once they're back together. Is mad that Blake expresses a desire to keep her save, but everything is (again) fine once they kill Adam. It's a dual issue of the story not acknowledging when Yang is being unfair (why does she get to go home to recover, but Blake doesn't?) while also just... not resolving these things

Is indifferently cruel to Oscar for a whole volume, from screaming in his face to only caring about Jaune after he attacked the kid

Is one of the most furious at Ozpin for keeping Salem's immortality a secret, but turns around and immediately helps keep that secret from Ironwood

Her justification for this is that they can't just trust people blindly anymore, but is the one to suggest that they blindly trust Robyn instead

Puts the blame for all this solely on Ruby's shoulders, ignoring her part in this mess and her continued promises to follow Ruby's lead, but then gets furious at Ren for expressing the same concerns

Tops off this question of trust by laughing along with everyone else at Emerald's speech despite being pretty much the only one to raise concerns an hour ago

Is told by her father that she relies too much on her semblance and puts both herself and others in danger by rushing headlong into situations. Volume 8 she revs up her semblance, rushes in, and "dies"

Is at the center of RWBY's one, presumed queer couple within the main cast, leading to numerous issues which complicate all of the above

Yang is... a mess, frankly. And not in a "She's a complex, multifaceted character" way, but a "The writers don't know what they're doing and it has severely hurt Yang's character" way. She comes across as a massive hypocrite, callous towards most everyone not in her small circle, yet is simultaneously trusting to the point of foolishness. We're supposed to believe that Yang is mistrustful of the established ally who gave her her arm, but is buddy-buddy with the woman who framed her and orchestrated the killing of the friend sitting beside her. We're supposed to believe that Yang has little knowledge, no emotional connection, and a healthy distrust of Raven, but believes all her lies anyway. We're supposed to believe that Yang is beginning to question whether it's a good idea to follow her little sister without question, but that she'll tell Ren he's just pushing everyone away when he agrees that things are indeed bad right now. A better written show might, for example, explore how Yang's instinctual desire to defend her sister is bumping up against her own concerns, but with what we've got, Yang is just a different character every couple scenes. She's constantly contradicting herself, changing for no reason, or staying static to the point where the audience is wondering what the point of previous arcs were, all of which makes her so frustrating to watch. I'll agree with Yang one episode, only for her to have done a complete 180 the next, with no acknowledgement of this change. Or she's spouting views that blatantly ignore everything else that's going on, making her appear to be in denial at best, but the story won't acknowledge that either, instead framing her as 100% correct. Far from being the emotionally rich character she once was, a young woman on the cusp of growing up - deciding what she wants in life, learning to reign in her temper, finding some independence from her sister, recovering from a trauma - Yang now is just... angry and hypocritical, at least when she's not with Blake. And that relationship continues to be marred by both the lack of a queer confirmation and the inconsistent way that the rest of Yang's character is handled. Yang just isn't a person I like anymore, even though it's obvious I'm supposed to. But I look at her actions and attitude across Volumes 6-8 and see someone who is impossible to get to know because she's changing her mind every ten minutes of screen time, leaving a string of confusing, hypocritical, and at times downright cruel decisions in her wake.

[tortilla-of-courage]

Describing it as being like home is actually pretty accurate yeah.

And YES! I am totally willing to talk about my modern AU.

I've been calling it the Adoption AU because Time ends up adopting all of the boys. It mostly started as, I saw an edit for a tweet someone did with Wars and Wild that involved Taco Bell (cannot remember the blog or post for the life of me though), and so I wrote a thing about Warriors sneaking out of his university dorm to pick up Wild, who snuck out the window despite his broken arm, and then got extorted by Legend in exchange for silence at 3am.

This was followed by a fic where Groose decided spray painting a public building was a good idea and got himself and Sky arrested, set earlier in the timeline.

So then I made a timeline. Twilight is Time and Malon's biological son, and he found Wild on the side of the road one day (Wild's backstory involves a bad car wreck and an underground hospital, but no conspiracy bullshit. Yet). Wild has no memory, so they keep him. Wild brings home Legend, who was told his uncle died at school before a holiday. They then also keep Legend. Malon finds Four in her barn one morning for complicated reasons, and they keep him too. Twilight finds Warriors, who is in his class, hiding in an alley one day after he ran away from an abusive home and brings him home too. SS Impa (who I've nicknamed Shield because there are enough prominent Impas here that they should get nicknames too) is a social worker who's trying to find Sky a home and has run out of options, and turns to Time, who has a record of successfully housing 'unhousable' youths, and asks if he can take one more. He can. Wild finds Hyrule and brings him home because 'Rule needs a shower even more than Wild does. Hyrule stays. Wind's grandma ends up with Wind and his sister but can't financially take care of both and so Wind ends up with the boys and everyone is +1 Grandma.

Twilight has a fic detailing how he knows Midna and Dusk and I ended up shooting him (oops) but at least their social project gets handed in on time.

Then I started hashing out Time's backstory and suddenly this AU had plot. And organized crime. And a conspiracy. And secret societies.

The summarized version is that the gems from OoT are like, Idk what they do yet. Haven't gotten to a point where I need to figure that out yet. But they are Important and have to be carefully guarded. The Great Deku Tree (just called Deku because he's not a tree here) was Time's foster father before Ganondorf killed him. Also, Ganondorf is Deku's half brother. Because. However Time 'stole' the Emerald and he and Navi ran until OoT Impa (Sage) and Lullaby found them. So Time got adopted into Lullaby's family. Ruto inherited the Sapphire from her mother who also died from mysterious circumstances, and Darunia has the Ruby. Lullaby got the Ocarina from her late paternal grandmother.

Then Ganon finds them and tries to steal the Emerald from Time, so Lullaby goes looking for help and thus finds the sages. Saria is an anonymous hacker who uses the screen name 'Kokiri'. Time reveals he didn't steal the Emerald, he was Deku's heir, and then Navi goes missing. Time is home worried enough that he's physically sick, and Ganon decides to try and attack the home. Only Lullaby's family is Olde Money, and they live in a big, old manor, so Lullaby as Sheik decides to play 'Home Alone' with the secret passages in the walls and they piss off Ganon because when did that brat get a sheikah bodyguard??? Sage and Rottla (Lullaby's mother, who is fully sheikah as well) rush home from a thing and Kokiri is running a play by play watching the security cameras.

I pull in my headcanon that Time was killed in the Downfall Timeline by getting impaled on Ganon's tusk and Ganondorf stabs him with the tusk of a mounted boar head and then Sheik shows up to protect his brother, and then Mama gets home and is not happy to find this man in her home attacking her kids. Time is fine, but Navi stays missing. (She's alive tho.)

Also, Time's foster dad was the last leader of a secret society known as The Order of The Lost Woods, and Time learns this upon meeting Tatl, who gets him sucked into another event that would probably make a good action movie. I have thought too much about the Order and it's hierarchy, but what's important here is that Time ends up with a standing job offer and Tatl and he remain friends and we find out how I fit FD into this AU. It's not pretty. This is where Time loses his eye too.

The AoC came out and I added that Link in as Wild's twin brother and he shows up during the main plot.

Which starts with Twi getting kidnapped. (I'm not really meaner to him than the others, I swear, he's just the most logical choice to be Time's heir. Which he is. He doesn't know this though.)

So he's kidnapped by Ganondorf, who broke out of jail, Zant, who shot Twi in highschool, and Ghirahim, who has some history with Sky I haven't fleshed out yet and a very public rivalry with Warriors over twitter. About six weeks later Sage finds him in an abandoned warehouse (because of course) with a shackle on his left arm and a lot of new injuries. He ends up fine, but he tells Time later in the hospital what happened and he's both message and messenger and Time is this close to just committing murder. Tatl talks him down.

Somewhere here is the half finished fic where I introduce AoC Link as Luke/Knight, and this is as far as I've plotted thus far.

Other tidbits: Wild and Lullaby/Sheik are both genderfluid, Lullaby/Sheik married Ruto, Wild has a very popular YouTube channel, Twi does drag racing sometimes, Sky has a pet bird, Four has DID to explain how the Colours are here too, and Wolfie exists in the form of a random wolf-dog Wild found and brought home that Legend somehow convinced half the family was Twilight. Also, Warriors has somehow befriended an entire sorority and he doesn't know how this happened.

This... got long. As you can see I have a lot of thoughts about the Adoption AU. It's gotten a bit away from me, I'll admit. This went from 'Wild does stunts on his motorbike and keeps breaking bones but somehow not the bike' to 'Twilight got kidnapped and Time is the target of a mafia that Ganon runs and also maybe killed a man once' and I don't know how that happened. Also, this is the condensed version of the summary. My actual summary/outline is much, much longer than this. So if there's any detail you want more on, feel free to say so and I'll happily go into more detail (there are so many things I didn't even mention....)

And yes, Robbie having a bong is very important to my best friend, for some reason. He has one in a modern AU and he probably invented one in canon. I happen to agree that this makes sense for his character, if anyone would invent a bong in LoZ it's Robbie (this is such an anticlimactic end to this ask after the stuff about the modern AU...)

Also, sorry for the long ass ask. I genuinely don't know how to condense the Adoption Au down any further. There's a lot of important plot beats to cover, and I still skipped things.

-Attllhak

oh my GOD???? if you ever write and post this somewhere id love to read it, the level of "crazy" conspiracy/action movie elements implemented sound sosososo cool, from Ganondorf being Deku's half brother to trying to "send a message" via Twi and- just- all of this is SO good.i sat here and reread this ask like 3 times as if that would magically spawn more info about it ahaha

there's so much to unpack here but it's honestly so worth it i love every single detail!!! i can imagine the actual outline being way longer, nad honestly that just makes me the more excited/curious about all that might be missing from this ask - i cant believe it started with Wild and Wars going to Taco Bell of all things

also i can totally see Robbie making a bong, no matter the setting or AU. fits him a lot I'd say

and dont worry about long asks!! i adore opening up my askbox to see one ask take over the entire thing, it makes me really happy aha

[nightshade-minho]

3021: Starless

-(4)-

Warnings: presence of knives and weapons, android blood. explicit smut: master kink, spanking, rough facefucking, unprotected sex, degradation, light bunny kink, nipple play, creampie, voyeurism (i think? idk hyunjin is listening in on everything-), biting, a punch.

Wc: 6.4k

The alarm forced you awake, and you rolled over in your bed with a groan as you slammed the button violently, the incessant wailing finally stopping. With a sigh, your tired brain tried to remember why you'd set an alarm this early.

Oh. Right. You had a date.

You sat up with a smile on your face, stretching before going over to your closet and wondering what to wear. A part of you really wanted to impress Minho. Finally, you settled on a cute dress you rarely wore. Pulling it on, you looked in the mirror and nodded to yourself in approval. Not bad...

As you finished getting ready, you hovered near your trusty knives on the bedside table. You weren't going to need them on a date...and it wasn't like you could hide them in your dress, either. You shook your head and left them there, going to the living room.

Hyunjin was lying on the couch, his gaze fixed on the netscreen. As he noticed you walk in, he hurriedly switched it off, putting a smile on his face. Frowning, you went over to grab your keys, his shifty behaviour making you suspicious.

"Um, is there anything I should know?"

"What? Nothing! Absolutely nothing." He eyed you up and down, wolf-whistling under his breath. "Damn, who'd you dress up for?"

"That's none of your business. I'll be back later. Again-"

"Don't answer the door for strangers. Got it. I'll be careful. I'm not a toddler, Y/n."

You rolled your eyes as you opened the front door. "Could have had me fooled. Also...I'm tired of you walking around shirtless. I'll get Jisung to bring you some clothes."

Hyunjin smirked, placing his cheek in his palm. "Why, angel? Does it affect you?"

Deciding not to grace him with an answer, you left the apartment, locking it behind you, his chuckle the last thing you hear as you leave.

Minho's eyes lit up as you walked towards him from across the street, your footsteps lazy as you crossed the road.

"Hey there. You look really pretty." He smiled. You looked around, humming. You were downtown, on a long street lined with hawkers and stalls selling everything from netscreens to steaming hot dumplings. It wasn't exactly your first choice for a date night, but it could be fun. It was also very close to your home, so if an emergency were to happen, you'd be able to dash back...

"Thank you. So...what have you got planned?"

"Well, I've always found places like this interesting. Every person here probably has a different story..." he sighed as he looked around the crowd, before dragging his gaze back to you. "I just thought we could take a walk, reach the end of the street. Maybe browse some stalls. What do you think? Cause there's a nice restaurant nearby, so if you don't like it then...." He chewed on his bottom lip, worried that you thought his idea was lame.

"No, this sounds fun. Let's do it." You shrugged. His relieved grin made your heart flutter as he hesitantly took your hand, leading you down the street.

Jisung knocked on the door, clutching the bag in his hands tightly as he waited for Hyunjin to open up. You’d called him and told him to bring Hyunjin ‘some clothes’. Hearing your voice again had made him realize just how much he’d missed you, despite only being away for one night.

When Hyunjin finally opened the door, Jisung lifted an eyebrow as he noted his bare chest, and the tight sweatpants which he remembered seeing you wear on more than one occasion. Could you have...no. Slightly uncomfortable, he ignored the android’s cocky smirk as he pushed past, heading for the couch and dropping the bag there.

“Here are some clothes that hopefully fit you.” He wrinkled his nose, trying to avert his eyes from the scantily clad android. “So...you don’t have to walk around looking like that.”

Hyunjin hummed, taking a banana from the fruit bowl and handing it to Jisung as he sifted through the clothes. “Thank you.” He said simply.

Jisung regarded the banana with disdain, dropping it on the table as he looked around. “Do you...do you know where Y/n went?”

Hyunjin picked up the nervous edge to Jisung’s voice. Hmm.

“I don’t know, she didn’t say. But...my guess is she was going on a date. She dressed up real cute.” He shrugged, grabbing Jisung’s discarded banana and peeling it.

“A...a date?” Jisung swallowed, hating the mass of jealousy clogging his throat. “Y/n never dresses up...”

“Hm.” Hyunjin bit into the banana, talking with his mouth full. “When’s the last time you took a shower, dude?”

Jisung fought the urge to snap, his patience wearing thin. ‘I’m a mechanic, pretty boy. This is what I do for a living.” He wiped off the grease on his chin, looking up. ‘Did I get it?”

Hyunjin tilted his head in amusement. “Uh huh.”

Jisung glared, pausing as his neodisk’s alarm set off. Shit, he had to be back at the workshop in 15 minutes. He had really wanted to ask Hyunjin some questions, though. Why was he hiding from the palace? And how long was he expecting to do it?

“Bye.” Jisung mumbled under his breath, heading for the door. He didn’t know if it was jealousy or an actual fear of being found out...but he needed Hyunjin out of your apartment, as soon as possible.

"Those are fake, right?" You noted, your eyes falling on a stall lined with numerous neodisks and netscreens. "There's no way those are authentic, especially when they only cost that much." You said firmly.

"They most probably are." He shrugged, as you continued walking down the street.

So far, the date was going very well. Minho was funny, good at conversation, and he seemed to care about you a lot. This was the most fun you'd had in ages.

It was nice not having to be riddled with worries and burdens. For once in your life, someone else was taking the lead. It felt liberating.

The two of you had already consumed a fair amount of dumplings as well as managed to piss off every other person in the Sound Sensitivity stall, when your neodisk's extremely loud ringtone sliced through the silence, causing you to stumble and knock over an entire shelf of deflectors. Needless to say, the two of you were now banned from that particular stall.

You regretted pushing him away, wishing you'd given him the chance to show this side of him before.

"Oh look!" Your eyes suddenly focused an array of jewelry, laid across the table, most of the pieces looking suspiciously authentic.

"That looks interesting. Wait, look at those..." He said slowly, pulling you to the stall and running his finger over the item that had caught his eye right away.

You peered around him, letting out a small gasp as you saw what he was looking at.

There were a pair of beautiful, delicate rings lying on the table. Wow. You found yourself wondering about the history behind them. They seemed to be really ancient.

Minho took one in his hand, inspecting it as he turned it around. "Wow. This looks like a real ruby...if it's fake, then it's very well made."

"Are they wedding rings?" You noticed in awe as he handed the other, more petite one to you. Turning it over, you made a small sound of appreciation.

Unable to control the temptation, you slid the ring down your finger, raising your hand to look at it. It was so beautiful...

"Do you really like it?"

"I do..."

"Then buy it."

"I didn't bring any crescents with me." You sigh, moving to take the ring off. "It's okay-"

"No! Just...wait. Let me find out how much it costs, okay?" He quickly stepped into the stall before you could protest. You sighed, continuing to look through the rest of the jewelry as Minho found the shop owner, sitting at the back in a chair. He noticed her blinker, realizing she was an android. Fuck, she wouldn't be easy to bargain with.

"How much are these?" He asked, raising up the ring.

The woman paused, squinting at it before nodding. "If you want the pair, 1021 crescents."

Minho groaned inwardly. He didn't want to let you down...but if you knew he bought something that expensive for you on the first date, you would probably be weirded out. It's not like you knew how rich he was.

Sighing, Minho nodded. "Okay, I'll buy them." The lady nodded, handing him the crescent processor. He punched in his code, the woman taking the device back as it let out a tiny ping.

"All yours." She said, turning around and going back to her chair. Minho bowed gratefully before heading out again.

He walked over to you, smiling. "I got them."

"Oh, how much were they??"

Shit.

"Um, only 15 crescents."

You hummed in approval, smiling as he slid his ring on as well. "Wow, that's less than I expected for rings this intricate, but I guess this place isn't a certified jewelry store or anything. It makes sense."

"Yeah." He swallowed. He didn't like lying to you, even if it was just a tiny white lie...but he'd gotten used to lying. The smile on your face as you looked at him was enough, though. He watched you observe the glinting ring on your finger, swallowing. Maybe he should tell you those were real, and not a cheap knock-off...but no, you might think it's weird and return it. He definitely didn’t want that. Something about you wearing the ring he bought for you was making his heart thud impossibly fast.

His smile grew wider as you grabbed his hand again, tugging gently. "I'm hungry." You pouted.

"Didn't we just eat, princess?"

"Well yeah, but we didn't have dessert..." You mumbled, looking up. He smiled at you, the corners of his eyes crinkling.

"Okay, let's go get something sweet. Like what, though?"

You looked around, your eyes falling on an ice cream truck right across you, letting out a sound of happiness in the process. Minho followed your gaze, smiling as he saw the stall.

"Do you want ice-cream, hm, baby?" He teased. You nodded, flashing him doe eyes as he tried to maintain his control, your innocent expression affecting him in a way he couldn't quite describe.

The two of you made your way to the stall.

After a lot of thought, you decided on a pinkberry popsicle. Minho chose not to have one, claiming he didn't have much of a sweet tooth.

You walked down the street, swinging Minho's hand lightly as you licked and sucked on your popsicle with fervor. It'd been so long since you had ice cream of any sort, choosing to ration your crescents to buy what really mattered. Humming under your breath, you glanced up at him, only to find his gaze burning into you, his expression having changed.

Minho tried to ignore the heat rushing south as you swirled your tongue around the tip of the popsicle, seemingly oblivious to the effect you were having on him. But no, you’d noticed.

You averted your eyes from him, his heavy stare causing your insides to twist. You tried your best to consume the ice-cream in a less...provocative manner, but it wasn't as easy as it sounds.

Eh, fuck it. You might as well have some fun with it.

You licked a stripe up the base of the popsicle to the top, sucking on it as you looked up at him, winking.

When his eyes darkened considerably, you knew you'd been playing a dangerous game. Minho kept his eyes firmly locked on the street in front of him, his hand tight around yours as he chose to ignore you.

You sighed under your breath at your failure to rile him up, choosing to finish your ice-cream silently as the crowd started thinning out, the two of you nearing the end of the street.

The road was now quiet, and the absence of the bustling noise you'd grown accustomed to around these parts made the atmosphere even more intense. You carefully avoided eye contact with Minho as you discarded the naked popsicle stick into a waiting trashmachine, not wanting to see his expression.

"You really seemed to be enjoying that ice-cream." He said lowly, his tone sparking something carnal in your lower half. God.

To tell the truth, you weren't big on sex. The only passion you'd ever harboured was toward your knives...So the deep arousal settling itself in your core was surprising, to say the least.

What did you have to lose?

"I was. It was delicious." You mumbled, leaning in closer to him and working up your courage.

"I'd rather taste something else, though."

Minho swore under his breath at your boldness. That was it, he couldn't hold himself back anymore. Grabbing your wrist, he pulled you into an empty alley, pushing you up against the wall as his eyes bore into yours.

"Naughty kitten. I didn't expect this from you." He mumbled almost to himself, his finger coming up to tilt your chin higher, forcing you to look into his eyes.

"I like the bold ones, though." He whispered in your ear. His proximity was blindingly intoxicating, and you let out a small whimper when you felt his lips brush against the shell of your ear.

Minho's eyebrow raised. "What was that?" He let out a drawn out chuckle. "I barely did anything, kitten. Why are you already so riled up?

"I'm not."

His finger brushed across your cheek as he cupped it gently, his lips forming into a mock pout. "Your face is redder than a tomato...I guess I finally managed to fluster you. Yay me." He mumbled, his eyes on your lips.

"I never get f-flustered. Especially not by you."

Minho paused, his smirk growing wider as he noticed the way you couldn't quite look at his face, the slight tremble of your lip as you uttered the lie.

"Sure, whatever you say." Minho leaned in until his bottom lip brushed against yours. He found himself relishing the blown out innocence in your expression. For once, you didn't look completely self assured, confident you know what happens next. The light helplessness he had thrust you into was turning him on even more.

Your lips parted as you stared up at him, too shy to make the first move.

Inhaling, Minho let out a soft sigh. His breath tickled your chin as he finally molded his lips with yours, gently.

Your eyes blew wide as his admittedly soft mouth moved against yours, slowly drifting closed as you kissed him back. He tasted so sweet...

Minho's hands snaked behind you, gripping the backs of your thighs as he lifted you up, slotting himself between your legs.

"I've been wanting to do this for such a long time..." he mumbled against your lips, teeth pulling on your bottom lip as he stared into your eyes.

You held onto him tightly, wrapping your legs around his waist and pressing your lips back to his, parting yours. The two of you made out, each swipe of his tongue drawing out a moan from you, making you want more.

He broke away after a few minutes, breathing heavily as he rested his forehead against yours.

"You-"

You were interrupted as he rolled his hips into yours out of nowhere, the thick bulge in his pants rubbing against your clothed folds. Letting out a choked moan, you whined softly, bucking your hips as your mind begged for more.

"Patience, kitten."

"I'm p-patient."

He raised an eyebrow, one hand sliding up your dress to cup your breast, his thumb running over your covered nipple and drawing out another whimper from you.

"Really? Doesn't seem like it."

"Please-"

"Please, what?"

"Please make me f-feel good." You managed to get out, looking up at him with pleading eyes and making him swear as he let go of you, setting you on the ground again as he pulled you out of the alley, his grip on your wrist firm as he walked to your apartment as fast as he could.

Fuck, it hurt. But it had to be done. Hyunjin stared at the bloody tracker in the sink. Setting the knife down, he breathed out slowly.

Smashing it with his fist, he made sure it was destroyed before tossing it into your trash can and sighing. He used his elbow to wipe the drops of blue on the counter. Shit, he was going to need a shower after this.

No matter what, one thing was for sure. He couldn’t let them find him.

Never.

As the two of you got closer to your apartment, your addled brain suddenly remembered the fact that you were hiding the royal android in your apartment- and here you were, bringing someone who worked for the government right to him. Damn it, all the making out had made you forget.

You stopped in your tracks right in front of your front door, Minho turning to you with a raised eyebrow at your hesitation.

"Open the door, Y/n."

"I...um..." you tried to gather your thoughts together. You couldn't send him away now. Fuck. You were already in too deep, and you'd be lying if you said you didn't need him inside you right away.

"I...um, my room is really messy. Uh, just let me go in and clean it a bit-"

Minho let out a low growl, trapping you against your door as he leaned in. "I don't give a shit about your room, kitten. I just want to fuck you until you're dumb and begging me for more."

You looked up at him, mouth opening slightly as you tried to think of what to say, his words effectively rendering you mute.

"P-please?" You managed to get out, pouting up at him. Minho's expression softened slightly, and he stepped back slowly with a sigh. "Fine. Go ahead." He leaned against the wall, raising an eyebrow at you. "Be quick. I don't want to stay out in this hallway with a boner any longer than I have to."

You smiled gratefully, quickly unlocking your door and shutting it behind you as you went into your apartment. Swearing under your breath, you quickly searched your tiny apartment, unable to find Hyunjin. Your heart started beating faster as you wondered where the tall android could have possibly gone.

Finally, you found him in your bathroom.

Naked.

"What the f- Hyunjin! I thought I told Jisung to get you clothes-"

"He did. I can't take a shower clothed, though, right?" Hyunjin smirked, clutching your towel in his fingers as he glanced up at your red cheeks.

"You look worked up."

"It's not because of you." You hissed, and the man scoffed. "Whatever you say, princess."

Your eyes widened as you heard your front door open, cursing.

Fuck this. You really didn't have time for this bullshit.

"Stay. Quiet." You snapped quietly, ignoring Hyunjin's confused expression as you quickly darted out of the bathroom, locking the door from the outside as you leaned against it, trying to seem nonchalant.

Minho walked in, his eyes falling on your messy bed as he pulled his shirt off, making you gulp at the sight of his chiselled torso.

"Well, you didn't really do a good job of cleaning, did you?" He laughed. "It's okay, I don't blame you."

He came over to you, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear as he tilted your chin up. "I'm going to ruin this pretty face of yours." He mumbled, pressing his lips to yours again as you whimpered against him. He groaned, his hands roughly kneading the flesh of your ass as he deepened the kiss even further.

He bit your lip again, his hand coming down to your thigh to lift it higher, his bulge gaining better access to your heat. "Fuck, I can feel how wet you are. Tell me, baby. How do you want me?"

You whined, the words stuck in your throat. You were acutely aware of Hyunjin's presence in the bathroom, and the fact that he was overhearing all of this.

Minho's hand suddenly came down on your rear, a sharp smack that snapped you out of your thoughts, making you yelp. "Answer my question." He growled.

All your hesitation melted away in that moment. You were too far gone.

"I w-want you, Master."

Minho's eyes widened a little at the title, swallowing as he noted your embarrassed expression at what had slipped out. He felt himself get harder, his pants constricting him uncomfortably.

A smirk grew on his face as he picked you up, kissing you as he sat down on your bed with you on his lap. “Good girl.”

You grinded down on him, moaning softly at the feeling of his erection. "M-master, I wanna taste you..."

He looked up at you, nodding. "Whatever you want, kitten. Get master's cock all wet, hm?"

You slithered down, unzipping his pants hastily. Consumed with the need to feel him, you pulled down his briefs as quickly as you could, the sight of his cock drawing out a groan from you.

Long and pink, a bead of pre-cum rested on its tip. Unable to control yourself, you leaned in and swiped your tongue over it, humming at the taste.

Minho threw his head back, the view of your soft lips wrapping around the head of his cock making him feel drunk on an emotion he never knew existed. On instinct, his fingers curled in your hair, making you take him even deeper.

You tried to focus on your breathing as Minho's cock hit the back of your throat, pulling on your hair roughly as he started fucking into you. "That's right." He hissed. "Little slut. Take this fucking cock-"

He grunted, reaching down to pull on your top, exposing more of your cleavage to him. Scared he was going to rip your dress, you reached behind you to unzip it.

Minho let you pull off his cock for a second, helping you slide the offending material off. As soon as you managed to get the dress on the floor, his hold on your hair was back, shoving you all the way down on his cock once more.

The lack of oxygen was making you lightheaded, as Minho resumed his almost cruelly rough thrusts. You loved it, though. The heat between your thighs was demanding your attention, but you just couldn't bring yourself to pull away yet. Just a little more...fuck, his groans above you sounded so heavenly. You wished you could hear them everyday.

Minho finally seemed to take some mercy on you, his grip on your hair tightening as he slid his cock out of your mouth slowly, inch by inch.

"Pretty." He mumbled, his thumb running over your lip, slick with his juices. You let out a mewl, wanting him to ruin you already. You wanted to be fucked stupid, like he said. Wanted to be his helpless little doll.

It scared you, how much you were willing to give away all your power to this man. Throw away any semblance of control, just to not be able to make decisions for once, for someone else to take care of you for a change.

Minho pulled you onto his lap, playing with the waistband of your panties as he gazed into your eyes. "I'm going to have my way with you, sweetheart." He said, pulling your panties off with a sudden, almost eerie calmness. ‘And you’re going to take it all like a good slut, hm?”

Minho's hands on your hips guided you over his cock, and your breath hitched as you feel his tip pressing against the velvet of your folds, his eyes falling on your chest. ‘Y-yes, Master.”

Minho's lips latched around your clothed nipple, nibbling on it gently as he pulled your other breast out of its cup, toying with the bud.

"Master..."

"Hm?" His eyes shot up to yours, and you're shocked at how different they look. Dark, filled with irate lust and an apparent need to claim you.

"I need you."

"Beg for it."

You swallowed, hesitation filling you. You looked up at the ceiling as your brain reminded you for a second about the asshole in the other room who was most likely having a field day eavesdropping. He was probably really enjoying it. You wouldn't put it past him.

The image of his dick, that you'd accidentally stolen a glance of, suddenly flashed in your head, turning you redder. It was beautiful...almost weirdly so. Inhumanely perfect. Obviously, it was manufactured to be, but that didn't mean you weren't going to-

Minho's squeeze on your ass cheek brought you back to the present, confusion filling you as you looked back down at the man, his head tilted as he glared at you.

Why the fuck were you thinking about that pain in the ass, when you had this god of a human underneath you? Honestly, Y/n, get it together.

“I told you to beg.”

You felt your uncertainty melt away as you inhaled, the neediness making a reappearance.

"Want my p-pussy destroyed. Want master to fill me up. Make me his." You said softly, wrapping your arms around his neck.

He buried his nose in your neck, humming in content. "Good girl. My good girl." He mumbled against your skin, lining his cock up with your entrance, pumping himself as he did so.

You let out a strangled moan as you felt him push his rigid length into you slowly, your walls hugging him tightly as you tried to adjust to the feeling. "F-fuck-"

"It feels good, doesn't it?" He said, tone a little softer compared to before. You nodded desperately as his hands found your waist, moving you and forcing you to take more of his cock, until you were sitting on him, him entirely inside of you.

Was sex always supposed to feel this good? It was almost euphoric, how good his length felt, stretching your pussy to its absolute limit. The pleasure shot through you, filling you up completely. Using your waist as leverage, he slowly started fucking up into you. Slow at first, and then his thrusts turned more animalistic, stretching your ass cheeks to take you deeper.

"It feels a-amazing, Master." You were finding it hard to speak incoherently, the sounds of skin slapping skin filling the room as you descended into a flurry of whines, as he bit your boobs, his lips kissing everything he could reach.

His mouth found yours again eventually, his lips parting yours as he pulled you close to him, your bodies sweaty and pressed together.

“Shit...”

Minho growled into the kiss, flipping you around and hovering over you as he lifted one leg over his shoulder, the new angle enabling him to hit your sweet spot accurately. The sight of your pussy twitching around his cock, stretching to accommodate all of him, was pushing him closer to the edge. You were perfect. So fucking perfect.

Minho had imagined having sex with you before. He'd never imagined it would be this heavenly, though. You were a completely different person now, the snark having disappeared completely. There were small whimpers falling out of your mouth, rather than the sarcastic comebacks he'd gotten used to hearing.

"My cute little slut. My bunny. Fuck." He snarled at the feeling of you clenching around him, his words driving you closer and closer to your orgasm. "You like this? Being a little whore for your master?"

You nodded in desperation, eyes rolling to the back of your head as he drove his cock into you like he was possessed. And he was, his emotions blurring as he felt you tilt your head back.

Minho bent down over you, hurriedly removing your bra and throwing it on the floor. He needed to see all of you. Running his hands over your boobs, he bit your neck, running his tongue over the marks he was making.

"I...I'm going to cum-" You cried out, raking your nails down his back as you squirmed. He held you down, your expression pushing him impossibly closer to his high. Minho frowned as he felt his heart pound. Even when he was inside you, he somehow wanted to get even closer to you. Groaning, he reached for your hand, intertwining your fingers with his. The metal of the ring he’d got you brushed against his skin, making his heartbeat accelerate.

For a second, he wondered why you were even letting him fuck you. Was this going to be a one time thing? Or did you really like him?

Did you want to be with him?

Minho opened his mouth, a groan leaving him as he looked at the spot where you two were connected. "Y/n..."

You looked up at him, quivering as you felt your orgasm overtaking you, hitting you full force. Waves of pleasure crashed through you as you tried to listen to Minho, your brain a mushy mess as your orgasm forced you to forget how to breathe.

"Y/n, I love..." Minho frowned, trailing off as he continued thrusting. No...fuck, he was too scared.

"...your pussy. Taking me in so well. Cum all over Master, there you go..." Feeling the sparks of pleasure in his abdomen build, Minho rutted into your limp body, desperately chasing his high. Maybe some other time.

"M-master...want your cum, please..." you whispered into his ear, unable to take the overstimulation for any longer. You felt him pounding into your sensitive pussy, the sensation overwhelming you.

"Fuck, take it then, bunny-" Minho growled, slamming into you as he came. You whimpered, feeling him paint you white. The stars behind your eyes faded slowly as you blinked, Minho's face a blur above you.

He rode out his high, collapsing gently on top of you, his head in the crook of your neck, leaving a kiss on the sensitive skin. Panting heavily, Minho lifted himself up, his eyes running over your naked body as he pulled out.

"You're beautiful." He mumbled, thumb stroking your wet cheek. You smiled weakly, sitting up a little. Minho followed your gaze to your pussy, his cum dribbling out from between your folds and forming a small pool on the mattress.

"Hm, we need to get you all cleaned up." He stood up. "Do you want to take a shower?"

You almost nodded, but then you suddenly remembered. Fuck.

"N-no! I...I'm tired. Cuddles?" You held your hands out to him, pouting as innocently as you could. Minho shook his head, grinning as he grabbed his shirt from the floor, pulling it on.

"Fine, just tell me where you keep the towels, then." He said, heading towards the door of your bathroom. Oh god.

You jumped up on your wobbly legs, stumbling a little as you went over to him and grabbed his hand, stopping him. He looked at you, an eyebrow raised at your weird behaviour. You opened your mouth, wondering what to say.

A sudden sharp ring cut through the silence, coming from his discarded pants on the floor. You let go of Minho as he crouched down to pull his neodisk out of his pocket, frowning at the screen.

Oh no. 

"Shit. Uh....Y/n, I've got to go." He looked at you in concern, clutching the device in his hand as he sighed, barely concealing his frustration. "Will you be okay?"

You tried to conceal your curiosity, knowing this would be to your advantage. No longer having to come up with an excuse, you nodded quickly, answering affirmatively. "Yeah. I'll be okay."

Minho quickly pulled his pants on as your eyes surreptitiously glanced at the bathroom door. You thanked whoever was up there for the distraction, watching as Minho clothed himself hurriedly.

Glancing back at you, Minho bit his lip. He really didn't want to leave you like this. He wanted to hold you close, wanted to kiss your face and tell you what a good girl you'd been for him. But he was helpless.

He needed one more kiss, though. Now that he'd tasted your soft lips, he wasn't sure he could stop himself from wanting to kiss you all the time. You'd always been intoxicating, but now you were even more so.

Walking to you, he grabbed your cheeks, staring into your eyes, his own straying down to your lips. Leaning in, he kissed you, soft and sweet.

"See you tomorrow, baby." He mumbled against your lips, giving you a half-hearted smile before turning around to leave. You sighed as he left, your heart cursing Hyunjin.

As soon as the door closed behind him, you twisted around, pulling on your clothes and walking quickly over to your bathroom. Your hand paused on the handle, as you felt the embarrassment bubbling up again. Whatever. Suck it up, Y/n.

You still craved Minho, wanted him to wrap you in his strong arms and make you feel safe. Shaking your head, you reminded yourself to snap back to the present. There was nothing you could do.

Hyunjin raised his head as you opened the door, his infuriating smirk still on display. And he was still fucking naked. 

“Well, you seemed like you were having fun out there.”

“I was.” You snapped, shaking your head. “Did...did you really hear everything?”

Hyunjin stood up, walking close to you. Again, too close. He seemed to like invading your personal bubble.

“M-master, I n-need you~” He mocked, making his voice high-pitched in an attempt to mock you. Your glare grew icier. He shrugged, voice back to normal. “But you still sounded really hot. I bet I could make you feel even better, though. Make you moan louder.” His tone dropped deeper on that last sentence, making you swallow as you stepped away.

“Fuck off.” You muttered, trying to not show your expression on your face. “Now get out. I need a shower.”

He smiled. “A-”

“If the next sentence out of your mouth is a suggestion to join me, no thanks.” You grumbled. He chuckled at that, shaking his head as he eyed your limp with contempt.

“No, I was just asking if you were hungry. I have a million different recipes embedded in my memory, and I wanted to try and cook today. You know, as a thank you for letting me stay.”

You paused, turning your head and sighing. “Well, I’m not that hungry...but sure, go ahead.”

He smiled, bowing. “You won’t be disappointed, princess.”

You grimaced as he left, stripping naked once more as you stepped into the shower, not wanting to think about the possible feelings you had for Minho or Hyunjin and his annoyingly stressful presence in your house. You really had to ask him what he was planning on doing sometime soon. How long would this be going on?

Minho knocked carefully on the door to his father’s study, his heart pounding.

“Come in.”

He swallowed slowly, shoving the door open. His father was sat at his desk, his table piled with documents.

“You needed me?” He asked, voice quiet.

“You were supposed to hand out the Phantoms’ equipment today.”

Fuck. “I...well, I handed it over to Mr. Kim. He said he would-”

“Minho.” He turned around, rubbing his forehead, his face filled with exasperation. “Minho. You had one job. Oversee the Phantom processes. You’re the supervisor. You were supposed to be there, son.”

Minho let out a shaky exhale, looking down at his feet. “I know. I’m sorry, I’ll do better next time.” He promised.

“You better. Or I won’t pay heed to the fact that you’re my son. Now tell me, what was so important that you had to ditch official government business?”

Minho didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Fiddling with the ring on his finger nervously, he tried to come up with an excuse. But it was useless.

“That’s what I thought. Good night.” His father dismissed him with a disappointed sigh, turning back to his work. And that was that.

Minho left for his bedroom, blinking back tears of frustration as he climbed onto his bed. Taking the ring and his earrings off, he stripped to his underwear, burying his face in his pillow. He let his thoughts drift to you again, like they usually did this time of night. Usually he'd just be slipping into reveries and imagining you as his. Except this time, there was the tiniest bit of hope that you liked him back. He still couldn’t believe he’d kissed you. Fucked you.

He fell asleep with a smile on his face, despite it all. He really did love you, and he was willing to take his father's wrath over and over again if it meant he could keep you in his life.

Hyunjin let out a groan as soon as you close your bathroom door, rushing over to the sink as he felt his body burn up again. He didn’t know what was happening. He’d dug out the tracker in his wrist a while ago, but the overheating still hadn’t ceased.

Advanced android. Hyunjin let out a bitter chuckle. If only they knew. If only they fucking knew what the ‘royal android’ actually was.

He opened the fridge, the cool air calming him down. Ahh, that was much better. He let out a satisfied hum after a few minutes, feeling cooler. 

He turned around, wanting to make his way to your room to apologize for his earlier behaviour. It hadn't been his intention to flirt with you endlessly, to the point of annoyance. But now that he'd started, he found it hard to stop.

His mind replayed your moans and whimpers from before. He'd been telling the truth back then. Although he liked playing off his flirting as jovial, there was a small part of him that definitely meant every word. You were a beautiful woman after all, how could he not be attracted to you?

Consumed in his thoughts, he almost didn't see it coming. The punch to his face was sudden and powerful.

The force of it was strong, and so searingly painful he screwed his eyes shut as he gave out, slowly rocking back and forth before crashing onto the floor. Flickering lights, and a robotic whirr...the shock barely had enough time to sink in as he desperately tried to make sense of what his eyes were seeing.

Before he could, everything went black.