#the worms were the coolest part

[queer-fag]

You’re all so starved over external conflict and decent media that the second something pops up that’s a little fun you’re all losing your mind even if it’s a total let down

[fisherfurbearer]

Hey! I hope you don't mind the message - I just wanted to say, your tags made me cry. I'm so happy that our makin silly lil creatures over here could mean something to you all these years later. You absolutely can do what you want, and make a living at it, and more people need to hear that. Everyone in our lives told us we couldn't - we were just too stubborn to listen. I sincerely thank you, I'm going to look at these tags anytime I feel discouraged, and I hope we can make you a monster one day. <3

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I didn't see this originally and finally checked my inbox and saw this.

Now I'm feeling teary eyed ... I genuinely think it was artists like you both, Melissa Curphy (@missmonstermel), and Allison Theus (@crispyfishsticks) who showed me at a young age you CAN make awesome monsters and be wonderfully successful and HAPPY doing so.

I'm not joking at all when I say I found your DeviantArt over 10 years ago and it stuck with me ever since. I've kept up with Homemade Horrors since then on multiple platforms. It was always a dream of mine to have a custom monster made by you both, and now that I have an actual career position (transgender healthcare, which still doesn't feel real! That this is happening and it's Real!!) I may be able to afford that someday. ❤️

For reference this is the post and tags and if you like the looks of this gorgeous creature you should DEFINITELY give them a follow!!!!! Homemade Horrors are AMAZING and everything Worms and Bones make together is always so full of love and creativity.

[pinkaditty]

UGH I love love love ur Hc’s it like you literally came straight out of the game ^^ although jiro doesn’t get much time to sit down or relax in general sometimes tells me he’d like cockwarming

well yes obviously!!! this way he wouldn't have 2 move around much... ALSO TYYYYY this is the best compliment i could get in reference 2 hcs i think... like it's so good it's like i came out the game fr?!?!? amen!!!!! (hc's are here! unfinished, but being worked on)

a/n: well. im back. i know what i said but... i needed 2 write. the worms are inescapable... im working on a romance fic (sho haizono x reader) in the bg bc I need 2 post something fluffy... just this once... ANYWAYS this is short 4 my own sanity I fear. sorry! ill write more jiro next time I promise. he was gonna be my next smut victim anyway (after haru!). also please let me know if i wrote jiro ooc... i have an odd feeling i may have gotten something wrong here.

summary: jiro's resting. you can't stay put.

cw: cockwarming! and discussion about penis length, i guess? it was funny 2 put that in there. sorry. i love human anatomy i fear it's the coolest thing ever 2 me. ALSO MINORS DNI!!!!!!!

You squirm for the hundredth time, squeezing your walls tight around Jiro's hardened length. He snaps his eyes open and looks down at you sitting in his lap. You can't tell if he's disappointed, tired, or neutral. The only signs he's enjoying himself are his clouded gaze, wavering expression, and cherry red blush across his cheeks. You didn't understand how he was "relaxing" like this, but somehow he made it work. He sighs, a small smile tugging his lips upwards. He reaches for your back and pulls you into his chest, and you shiver from feeling him twitch inside you. "You really should relax." His low voice is as expressionless as ever and masterfully hides the arousal he feels, the evidence of which is plastered all over his face.

"You're... A bit too long for that, Jiro." You try to say it jokingly, but your words are overshadowed by your groan as you try to settle yourself, only to end up spearing yourself further on his impressive length. He's silent for a moment before he strokes your back gently, as though apologizing. You ramble on. "I mean, I knew it was rumored that taller guys had longer dicks, but I didn't know that it was actually true—"

"It's not." Jiro pauses his hand movements, looking down at you again. "It's an unreliable method to use one's height alone to determine length, and the correlation that has been found is too weak to assume accuracy." His smile had faded at some point, returning to his usual stoic expression. His blush has not faded, however, and his pupils were blown wide.

"Okay..." You hold out your words, looking up at him curiously. You pull away from his chest, suppressing a moan as he twitches inside of you again. You grip his shoulders, steadying yourself, and his hands settle on your hips. His lips part as he pants, his breathing quickening. Once the dizzy pleasure in your head fades a bit, you shake your head and look up at him. "So, I'm curious. Is there a way to predict penis length?"

Jiro looks off to the side, in thought, somehow still holding it together better than you were. His cheeks were still flushed, his lips still parted with heavy breaths, but not much past that. He wasn't even sweating, remaining calm despite buried to the hilt inside your cunt. You had to admit, it was impressive. "Yes; if I remember correctly, there's a stronger, more reliable correlation between the respective difference in lengths between your pointer and ring fingers and estimated penis length." He looks back to you, bored voice matching his expression if not for that expressive blush. "It's stronger than both height and shoe size correlation, so it's more likely for someone with a larger difference in the lengths of those fingers to have a larger size."

You hardly even think about it, lifting one of his hands from your hips as he was talking. You analyze the length of his ring finger in comparison to his pointer finger, only to find not much of a difference. You almost feel disappointed for a few moments, before Jiro's laughter shakes you out of your thoughts. He squeezes your hip tighter with his free hand, still laughing. He shakes just slightly as he laughs, causing minor friction of his length against your walls. You let go of his hand and press your palms into his shoulders, suppressing your moans. "Jiro!" You press your palms into his shoulders harder. His laughter slows to a soft chuckle, and he returns his other hand to your hip, steadying you, pressing his hips upwards into you. He huffs out a breath, a slight groan escaping his throat as he does. His eyes darken for a split second as he gazes at where your bodies connect before he lifts his gaze to you again, soft smile on his face.

"You should've seen how disappointed you'd looked." He said, breathy chuckles escaping him as he lifted one of his hands, displaying the minimal difference in length between his pointer and ring finger. "I said it was likely, not that a large difference in length would always be indicative of longer lengths. And, I have long fingers." He returned his hand to your hip again, sounding as bored as ever, but with a small smile stuck on his face.

"There ought to be an easier way to figure this out." You muse, leaning towards him slightly, careful not to cause too much friction.

"There isn't," he states flatly, looking at you with an amused expression. "The best way to predict length would be via a combination of ethnicity, height, shoe size, and the difference between lengths of the pointer and ring fingers. Studies have been tried prior simply by asking, but those values tend to be exaggerated." You notice his voice begins to waver slightly, his lips remaining parted even when he's finished talking. He swallows thickly, leaning back against the chair, gripping your hips a little tighter.

You don't bother suppressing the surge of pride that runs through you as he visibly melts under you, clearly letting the sensation of your walls clinging to his cock get to his mind. "Someone's melting," you say teasingly, pressing a finger to the center of his forehead. He blinks at you a few times, as though attempting to clear the pleasurable haze.

"You squeeze when you're focused or engaged in conversation." He speaks quickly, his breathing getting heavier. He blinks multiple times, staring down at you. "Your squeezing makes it hard to relax."

"Aw, sorry big guy." You huff out a short laugh, leaning towards him, watching his eyes as they cloud further with lust.

He sighs, as though resigning. "Have we talked enough for you to relax?" He sounded like an actual doctor, his voice flat and formal despite his seemingly hazy expression.

You nod, deciding to let him rest, as he'd wanted. He wordlessly moves one of his hands to your back, pushing you towards him. You lay against his chest again, exhaling and melting into his body as he melted into you. You look up, watching as his eyes slide shut again. He rubs gentle circles on your thigh with his thumb, keeping his palm on your hip.

You're comfortable... at least, until his cock twitches again.

a/n: jiro, at last. i am. kind of worried i wrote him a bit ooc and maybe went in too hard with my bio stuff. idk. i hope it's good regardless.

note that i enjoy likes, comments, and reblogs! please, tell me all about how you enjoyed my work!! it keeps me going!

@rottenzombrainz i believe this is ur man unless im mistaken

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Lumchagg

Another one that's immediately recognizable if you spot its most-known characteristic, but I had to keep this one in because I thought it was entertaining that the author was clearly working from two different sources and, rather than try and reconcile the two, apparently just copied two slightly-different accounts and left them like that.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you can find an explanation and previous posts at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting. The entry that people are working from this time can be found here:

And here's the one that folks will be drawing this week, if you want to get in on it:

Anyway, art below the cut:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) noted the apparent existence of a larval stage in the second half of the entry, and drew a creature that's part Australian firehawk and part moth. I think this design is extremely cool, and does a good job extrapolating from the ideas of a bird that makes its own funeral pyre and apparently starts life as a larva.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) went kind of a flamingo direction with this one, noting that a purple bird might acquire that coloration from its diet the same way flamingos do, which is cool. I also like the idea that its pyre/container is a silver censer, which is oddly accurate to medieval depictions -- I've definitely seen a couple of medieval images of this bird where its "nest" looks a lot like a fancy bowl. (Also thank you for including alt text.)

@kaerran (link to post here) makes note of a bit of a camera quality issue, but has what I think is a really clever idea. They've chosen to make their Lumchagg quite small, so that their "container" could in fact be the contents of a spice rack. A convenient solution for the modern Lumchagg with a high tolerance for plastic fumes. (Also thank you for including alt text.)

@ectocs (link to post here) has plotted out the lifecycle of a bird-thing that genuinely looks more like a dinosaur than anything, which I like a lot. That is a cool-looking bird. I also like the facial expressions a lot -- maybe it's just my imagination, but that blobby little worm stage seems quite pleased with itself. I strongly recommend clicking on the linked post to see a number of additional doodles and notes from the design process, which are very interesting in my opinion.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has done this drawing in a nice dark purple ink, which is both pleasant and appropriate. The bird looks very cool, and I find the worm quite charming. I also appreciate the detail put into the pyre/nest/whatever here. It's good. I like it.

@pomrania (link to post here) notes that the medieval definition of "bird" is quite flexible, and of course worm and wyrm were more or less interchangeable... so this is a dragon. Entirely fair, I can't argue with that. It's pretty cute, too.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) also gives us a life-cycle drawing, complete with a pupa, which I think is a nice and appropriate touch. They note the ambiguity of the term purple in pre-modern sources, so their Lumchagg has a more general colorful & iridescent look. I really like the parrot-worm-thing in the middle of the tree there.

To the Aberdeen Bestiary:

Yep, that's a bird. Presumably the trees are meant to represent frankincense and myrrh, both of which I believe are made from tree resin. Very good Stylized Trees, naturally. The bird, which kind of just looks like a hawk, also seems to be resting on an invisible perch, presumably because the artist wasn't sure what to do with the legs of a bird in flight.

There's also a second illustration:

That absolutely does not help identification, but I think a majority of participants clocked that this is the phoenix.

A few people noted that they hadn't known that phoenices (phoenixes? you know what, it doesn't matter, there's only one of them at a time anyway) were supposed to be purple. Others commented on the odd note about Arabia and the color purple, speculating as to what purple pigment was being referred to. I am excited to tell you that these two things are linked: the famous Tyrian Purple dye was originally used by... [drum roll]... the Phoenicians.

I actually had to delete a word from the entry before posting, because the original reads:

The phoenix is a bird of Arabia, so called either because its colouring is Phoenician purple, or because there is only one of its kind in the whole world.

The other part of the etymological explanation there is later explained by the assertion (the basis of which I do not know) :

The Arabs call a solitary man phoenix.

Also to be clear, there's not exactly a broad pre-modern consensus about phoenix coloration. Everyone seems to agree that it's brightly colored, but what colors vary widely. (However, it should be noted that "red" and "purple" are both popular options, and moreover that those colors are not always differentiated in older texts.)

It's tempting to say that the frankincense & myrrh is here probably just acting as a Christian resurrection metaphor because the authors are monks, but it is in fact the case that multiple medieval descriptions of the phoenix have it making use of valuable plants, including those. In the Old English Wonders of the East, it builds its nest from cinnamon. Herodotus (who says the phoenix is red and gold) mentions the phoenix using myrrh, but not as a nest or funeral pyre -- each new phoenix embalms the body of the previous phoenix in myrrh to be interred at the Temple of the Sun. Pliny (purple and gold, with a blue tail) has the nest made from cinnamon, incense, and perfumes, and when the little worm grows large enough it carries the nest, along with the remains of its predecessor, to said temple. Neither Herodotus nor Pliny mention the fire thing, interestingly, so I suspect it might have come in later. The Wonders of the East does mention the fire, but it has no opinion on the coloration.

I can feel myself falling into a rabbit hole, so I'm just going to cut this one off here.

[artbyblastweave]

So on balance I generally do enjoy Mark Millar, and a big part of why I enjoy Mark Millar is that a lot of his superhero stuff demonstrates the same awareness about the genre that Worm does- the sense of an unstable equilibrium, that the center cannot hold in the superhero universe as typically presented. Jupiter's Legacy, Super Crooks, Old Man Logan, Wanted, The Ultimates. Arguably Civil War. I have a whole other post buried in my drafts about how that bleak throughline keeps cropping up in his cape work. Specifically in his cape work, also- the man has written a lot of lighthearted, at times almost cloyingly sincere and optimistic one-off miniseries in other genres. Starlight: The Return Of Duke McQueen, Huck, Chrononauts, Beyond. In tension with this cynicism about the capes is the fact that he also clearly believes that superheroes are really cool, and on some fundamental level a really deeply noble and empowering idea. Even Wanted, which is probably the most thoroughly tasteless thing of his that I've read all the way through, I recall as having had this interesting subtext of anger over the fact that there's an audience for a superhero work as cynical and grotesque as Wanted. ("Fine. We took all the whimsy and wonder and derring-do you claim to have outgrown out back and shot it. The corpse is cooling. Are you happy yet? Dark enough yet? Mature enough yet? This is what you wanted right?") Anyway, I think Kick-Ass the comic suffers gigantically from a failure to break in one direction or another, in regard to that tension. It gets very, very close to saying useful and interesting things about the genre at several points but keeps undercutting itself by transforming back into the object of its own attack. There's this initial line of questioning, right, which is, "what kind of person, in real life, might actually try this? How would it go?" And the comic has some compellingly miserable answers to that question! Everyone in costume is chasing the same power fantasy, clinging to the idea of being somebody. Dave is, in his own words, motivated by "the right combination of loneliness and despair," and he's not competent. He alternates between minor wins and brutal hospitalizations, the first two issues and change is just the world punishing him for being dumb enough to try this, and for the most part he's a LARPer, a self-identified asshole. Red Mist is a rich kid playing with his father's money. Big Daddy and Hit-girl are framed as the "real deal", genuinely competent in their ability to dish out violence, and the comic to some extent has the self-awareness to recognize that people who were actually any good at this would be even more horrifying than the LARPers. The Reveal that Big Daddy was an accountant- that he made up a tragic backstory and made his daughter a human weapon in order to pursue an escapist fantasy- genuinely lands like a meteor! But it fucks it up, because it also needs to be cool, cool enough to keep our attention, and so it pulls an about face. The horror of Hit-girl gets subsumed by the realization that she's also the coolest thing in the whole book, almost loadbearing in terms of having actually cool and interesting things happen on-panel, and so the end of the book turns into the exact kind of superviolent revenge story it was initially skewering as unrealistic and disconnected from the much more grounded grief and loss Dave is experiencing at the start of the book. Dave's costumed escapades goes from being an obviously stupid and egotistical attempt to claw back control of his life to... an actual method by which he claws back control of his life, and not in a way that feels terribly well-earned!

The sequels double down on this- alternating between "in real life this would be cheap and stupid and tinged with anticlimax" and "woooo! Let's ape Tarantino until something cool happens!" and honestly, that feels less worthy of analysis because what I'm pretty sure happened there is that the movie blew up and created A Demand For More Kick-Ass. In general what it feels like fundamentally happened here is that you ask, "what if superheroes were real," you land on the answer of "they'd look stupid, be stupid and die badly," but what does that leave you with? It's not like that wasn't the obvious answer already and it's definitely not eight issues of material. He can't pull the trigger on having everyone involved die badly in meanspirited ways to drive the point home, and he never quite threads the needle back to the reconstructive middle ground he badly wants the book to inhabit, the "real heroes work in soup kitchens and look out for their neighbors" area. Things just happen.

That said, the gag about the astroturfed swear-word "Tunk" is fantastic. 10/10, no notes

[lexithwrites]

Hello you said you wanted to yap or listen to yap about marauders stuff again so riddle me this Batman, how good do you personally think Barty was at his beginning? Like the coolest part of his character to me is that he used to be such a good kid that even his father didn’t suspect he’d ever turn. So like, how ‘good’ was that? How quickly did he turn? Did it take years? Was it a true reconstruction of his pysche? Or was he always this boy and just trying to hide it, letting his true self out in all the darkest ways whilst knowing it’s exactly what would be his fall from grace? Did he just not care? Did he learn not to care?

The coolest thing about Barty Crouch Jr to me at least is that to everyone else in canon he was probably an example of ‘even a worm will turn’ while to himself, to anyone who truly knew him, it was always inevitable. Just wondering what your thoughts were since his fanon character is just kind of always ‘like that.’ :)

Oooo good question, I feel like as a kid barty was always pretty shy and kept to himself, I love him having a great relationship with his mum too so he’s stuck to her side 24/7, and his dad isn’t really there because he’s always working but barty is a smart ass kid, he probably got moved up a year in primary school and so he stuck out like a sore thumb but he just did his work to the best of his ability, and in canon I feel like people actually got to see the barty that’s really in there, he’s a little weirdo in his head and has never felt safe enough to talk about how much he loves fire and tricking people and just being a little weirdo, he loves snakes and bugs and rats when people run from them and he likes creeping people out, and I feel like it got worse when he met reg because regulus is a member of the weirdest family there is, he’s a goth freak with a cocky older brother and barty is like ‘nah you’re cooler than him man’ and then they meet the rosier twins and they’re also freaks and it’s a match made in heaven for them all

[shattered-reflections-au]

Fluffvember 5. Apple picking / "oh my gosh you do not know how to cook"

--- --- ---

"We're going to have to deal with that tree soon." Blue mentioned, his words blowing the steam from his tea. He gestured to their backyard, the apple tree overwhelmed by it's own fruit. "the squirrels are starting to get drunk off the fallen ones, those have got to go too," Vio mentioned. Red perked up. "apple pie time?" he asked, excited. "we'll have to see how many are actually still good. Provided there isn't another worm-pocalypse, then yeah." Blue said, remembering the dozen worms that invaded the barrels of apples from last year when they neglected picking. Green left the room temporarily, coming back with a few lacrosse sticks and a hockey stick. "ready." --- Green was a menace to his brother, having been practicing his passes in both sports with the rotten apples, hurtling them at the back of his brother. Red opted to be on the ground rather than try his luck with gravity flying apple carnage on a ladder being a bag holder for Shadow and Vio as the picked from high in the tree where Red couldn't get to. Blue had decided to retaliate against his brother, managing to smush some of the apple chunks into Greens golden hair. Explicatives flew from both of them in the heat of battle, the other three just barely managing not to be caught in the crossfire.

Two hours, two buckets, and three shopping bags full of apples later, Green and Blue were being threatened with a garden hose while Vio and Red dragged the fruit inside. Red dashed excitedly to the basement, pulling oodles of frozen pie dough out of the deep freeze. Red came backup to Vio loading apples into... the bathtub? "we've gotta wash them somehow." Vio argued, "grab a towel." he said, kneeling beside the tub and reaching into the warm apple water, beginning to scrub at them with their produce brush.

The two made quick work of the apple cleaning, Shadow coming in halfway through to grab some towels for the soalked twins.

---

Three whole hours of prepping apples. Peeling, coring, chopping, and dicing. Not to mention measuring the obscene amounts of sugar, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and lemon juice. Apple filling was moved into the food-safe buckets, that Red had stolen from his work. Lids were put on tightly and moved to the coolest part of the basement, wherein Red turned his attention to the pie dough. Red prepared all the crusts, relishing in the wonder of working at a bakery for his access to 40 disposable pie tins. He stacked them one on top of the other in the fridge.

---

The next day, at 4am, he started. 15 minutes to preheat. 4 pies in the oven at a time, rotated once throughout the 80 minute cooking period. 40 pies in total. Red lived off of coffee and sugar, again and again, the kitchen and dining room a revolving door of pies in and out of the oven. 14 hours total. Between pies baking, red canned the rest of the filling. boiling jars, partially cooking the mix, killing any pathogens in his way.

---

Green came downstairs just as Blue and Shadow left to deliver the last batch of pies to an old age home down the street. The kitchen was in shambles, jars of pie filling covered the island, smears of said filling on the counter, the stove, the cupboards... ...and Red asleep against the dishwasher. Green smiled. Poor Red had finally crashed, his body finally petering out after having ran on almost nothing all day. "no time to eat, gotta get these in the oven." a stressed Red had argued.

Through his sleep, Red's stomach growled, his expression turning sour.

Green sighed, crouching down to pick Red up off the ground. Sure, Red was heavy, but nothing compared to Green's tolerance of having 5 kindergarteners dog pile on him all at once for a piggy-back. Green carried Red to the couch, leaning him up against some pillows and tucking a throw blanket over him. Green marched back to the kitchen, cleaning up a bit before donning Red's abandoned apron. He fished out a box from the pantry, grabbed one of the last remaining pots from the cupboard and got started on some mac and cheese. Now, Green will admit he got carried away, always competing with his twin, inspiration hit. He added ingredient after ingredient to the pot of instant mac'n'cheese.

Bacon, Mushrooms, Ham, Onions, Pickles, Black olives, Sun-dried tomato,

Green will also admit he should have stopped there. Quit while you're ahead. Leave the sprinkles out of there.

---

"wakey-wakey sleepyhead!" Green cheered, putting a bowl of his mac'n'cheese in Red's lap and handing him a spoon. Red smiled and stretched before being greeted with the abhorrent dish presented to him.

just then, Blue and Shadow came home again, Vio coming downstairs because what was that smell???

Red grimaced, being the first to take a brave bite of Green's concoction as Green dished out some to the rest of the house. Red felt the extreme urge to either gag or spit it out the second it touched his tongue. The brine from the pickles and olives having somehow managed to curdle the powdered cheese, the sprinkles and bacon and mushrooms making it slimy and crunchy and all around bad. Red fought everything in him to swallow. Green bounced on his toes. "how is it?" he asked. Red grimaced again, looking to Blue for help. Blue, however, had taken one sniff and said something before Red could formulate a lie. "Red, honey, you don't have to eat that." Blue said flatly. Red sighing in relief and putting the bowl down on the floor.

"What?" Green squawked. Shadow had also braved a bite, not getting very far before uttering a "Oh my gosh, you do not know how to cook," and struggling to swallow his meager bite of pasta. "I'll call the pizza place," Vio mumbled, already dialing it into his phone. "anyone want apple pie while we wait?" Red asked.

[tsuki-sennin]

Kamen Rider Gotchard?

Yeah it was good! I'd even be willing to argue it was great.

I'm willing to admit, I was among those skeptical of Junsei Motojima, but kid came home and nailed it. Hotaro's this infectious, silly little guy, much like the Chemies he's partnered with, but there's so much weight put behind all his emotions that it's hard not to be swept up in how he feels. The drama with his mom, the unwavering devotion he has to bringing humans and Chemies together, all these moments with him and the rest of the Alchemist Academy, it's all good stuff. Helps that both the Chemies and the human cast are all generally fun and likeable. ...I just wish they'd let the main cast vibe with the Chemies a little more.

Rinne! Banger character, I like her, her Rider forms are gorgeous, Reiyo Matsumoto's a great actress who deserves a shitton of awards, how'd they give her so little to work with? Okay, as far as Female Riders go I don't think she's as squandered as Yaiba, but I wish Rinne was cooked a little longer. Her idolization of her father, her desire to save Atropos, her relationship with Hotaro, all great points of her character to be sure, but I don't think they all came together perfectly. It's a legitimately neat twist to have Geryon create Atropos out of jealousy for what Fuga had, but I feel like that's a little more... incidental than anything? It's a great idea, but I don't think it was given enough foreshadowing for its (admittedly fantastic) reveal. I think Fuga's Rider Form should've been an alternate one for Majade, but we can't all get what we want I suppose. ...Majade should've had more forms in general, c'mooooon, these were bangers! Also, girl, talk to your Chemy pals! The Unicon longs for fun!

Spanner, of course, is his own can of worms. I think I said this somewhere in my recaps/live reactions, but I'd have thought he was the coolest fucking guy ever as a kid. A positive endorsement to be sure, but certainly not a credible one, no matter how sick Valvarad looks with and without Driver. Shout outs to Yasunari Fujibayashi though, that man's hella cool. ...but I feel like Spanner himself falls a little short. And not just in combat, as has been noted by many people on here~! His bizarre sexual tension with Lachesis is legitimately enthralling, I absolutely love all the stuff with Kyoka and how she believably brings out a nicer side of him, and he's a perfect foil for Hotaro on paper. His stubbornness and blame-deflecting are great character flaws, but they focus a little too hard on them when he's not with Kyoka or Lachesis. He isn't so much challenged on them as much as... he forgets these parts of him. I think him coming around in the end would have a lot more weight if he had more of a legit partnership with Madwheel/Machwheel, and by extension the other Vehicle/Occult Chemies. ...Chazz him up, if you catch my meaning. His final form looks awesome though, I'll give him that. ...wish he got to use UFOFighter Custom at some point if they were gonna make him a Rider, but I won't complain about that.

Renge and Sabimaru, absolutely love those fuckers! Good senpais, 10/10, they're legitimately fun characters for Hotaro and Rinne to bounce off of, I love the way they interact with their families and care so much about the Chemies! Kajiki too, what a legend that man is, more Riders should have ordinary besties. And Minato! Teacher man! He's cool! He's reasonable even early on! He's super handsome! He stands on his own without being a Rider! The way he grows more protective over his students is so sweet! His little nursery rhyme dance with X Wizard lives rent free in my head!

I'll be honest though, the real stars of the show in the second half were the Dark SIsters. What starts out as this great group of villains giving form to a lot of legitimately disturbing malice becomes a surprisingly sober story of three girls stuck in the service of their abusive father struggling to break free of that cycle with the help of people they rejected, even if it wasn't a best case scenario for any of them. A very well-crafted tragedy as far as I'm concerned. I love the implication in the credits that Rinne and Spanner are still working hard to bring them back. Fantastic characters on their own too, of course. And uh... ahem Not to be crude, but it helps that both Kanon Miyahara and Alisa Sakamaki are stone cold foxes.

Clotho early on fills her "ultra violent brute" niche super well, every time she throws down is a highlight. She becomes a lot more interesting as she puts more emphasis on her family though, she's so desperate to keep them all together, even as it becomes apparent how self destructive this behavior is. Her singling out Hotaro as her enemy is fun, but I wish they did a little more with that, even if I did love what they had already. I loved the way she reluctantly teams up with him in the Episode 32 against the Kasshines... only to bluntly shut down his friendly handshake by kicking him, that was great. Still, I'll miss her, Kanon Miyahara's so damn cool.

Lachesis, of course, is also a banger character. She's fun, I love her arc of developing her humanity, I love her sass. Not an easy feat to make somebody as sadistic as she was develop into a nicer person in a way that feels legitimate, but goddamn. The way she completely sons Spanner's record as original Valvarad is just delightful too. As I said earlier her dynamic with Spanner's great, but I think the way she bounces off Kyoka's just as, if not better, which... Yeah, I can see the vibes.

But holy shit, Atropos. This goddamn nine-year old's just out here giving a borderline Shakespearean performance of a merciless leader secretly desperate for legitimate affection and friendship, her cold-blooded condescension conflicting with how she really feels about Rinne.

Geryon's such a banger villain too. Fantastic, I'd probably be willing to argue. Just this tremendously petty sack of shit who earns his victories and how menacingly he's depicted through his cruel methods while still having a fantastic enough Kenta Kamakari performance to make his stupid "coat the world in gold" plan work perfectly together with how much of an evil scumbag "father" he is. ...I don't know why he needed to be a homunculus created by the Dark Kings, that uh... doesn't really go anywhere.

Even bit players like Riku, Mr. Asahi, Yua, the Manabes, they all have adorable little one off arcs that make the Chemies feel like more than just this season's gimmick. ...the same can't be said for the Union of Alchemists, who're just kinda... there. I like what they did with Kugimiya in the Geats crossover movie, I think Harima and Boruto were fun one off Malgams, and Minato's conflict of going against their regulations is neat, but... idk, I don't really feel them as antagonists and I guess the writers feel the same since they just kinda stop mattering later on. I think Hotaro's normal school life's also kinda superfluous, but oh well.

Now for the real controversial question, do I think Legend's good? ...yeah, I like Kaguya a lot, I hope he sticks around, he's funny. The Legend Arc in the main series was a fun little distraction, I can understand why some wouldn't like it but... nah man, you just hate fun. /j

...not a whole lot else to say really! It's got problems weighing it down, but I just think it was a fun and delightful show. 8/10~! I think going a little harder'd make it an all-time banger. I love the Chemies so much, I'd say they deserve the world but Hotaro beat me to it.

Here's hoping Gavv keeps the vibes a rollin'!

[ohsoulymoons]

Duncan HCS without Romance for FUCKING ONCE IN HIS GODDAMN LIFETIME. Part 3

He bites hand that do feed him. He bites you when you try to feed him without consent, you touch his hair, and was a kicker along with fighter at the doctor's office as a child now tends to run away from the nurses in the hospital because he doesn't trust the system he was born in!

He hates getting sick but doesn't let anyone baby him when he is sick because he is scared being take advantage of out his brothers pranking him while sick as child it happened a lot.

Duncan had Heelys growing up and coolest entrances ever as a baby he was born "cool" more like his older brothers taught him head bang give deuces as 1-year-old as a greeting!

As a toddler he wore his shorts as a hat and stole others boots to copy his parents coming from work!

Duncan would totally bite own hand off if you forced him to group session of therapy with his parents at 16 years old.

He calls all his parole officers Bob even if that's not their names, he thinks it's funny to him since he was 13 years old.

Duncan would do the worm as Courtney yelled at his parents for him if they did something fucked up to him when they were dating long ago. Courtney and him sometimes catch up now after going to therapy to have heart to heart about everything or just sit next to each other watch the sunset together. No anger, no hurt, just trying to understand in between is human nature and no longer drama of total drama. Sometimes Duncan picks her up throws her in the water at the beach as she pretends to die in the water when they hang out with Geoff, Bridgette, Brody, and Dj.

Gwen is Duncan's "best friend" (It's actually Dj and his so-called girl best friend is Eva) Duncan let's Gwen and Geoff fight it out for fun. Duncan sees Gwen and Geoff like siblings to him.

[nostalgicamerica]

True story:

Back more decades than I care to count my folks uprooted the family from Minneapolis and moved us all to Northern Michigan. Talk about culture shock!

From city lights to country roads. From skyscrapers to outhouses. From a city of millions to a small town of less than 500.

I was about 8 or 9 so I didn't know anything or care that I didn't know anything.

Anyway, Mom and Dad and 13 kids set up shop in a dinky little town and, once the fights were out of the way (I don't know why, but all of the boys - and some of the girls - who were my friends in my childhood I had to fight first.) life was mostly bucolic and serene.

This was before cable TV and computers. My folks didn't even own a television set back then (televisions existed then - my folks just liked to torture us kids by not getting one). Despite the lack of electronics, I don't recall being bored. I do know that if I complained about having nothing to do, Mom was quick to find a chore from her infernal chore list to occupy my time. I was a fairly quick study when it came to avoiding work, and kept any periods of boredom to myself.

One summer morning, my younger brother and I decided we would see who could catch the most snakes. Don't ask why. The 'why' never occurred to us so you shouldn't bother with such trivialities either.

Catching snakes was easy. Especially the Garter Snakes and Copper Bellies that slithered around where we lived. You'd just wander around fields and lift any cover and - especially on hot days - like as not there would be a snake or two. A quick grab behind the head and into the sack.

They are not venomous and most of them wouldn't even bite. The bigger snakes could put a couple of puncture wounds in your hand, but I hardly noticed the bites.

At the end of the hunt my brother and I met up to compare the haul. Numbers escape me. Maybe he caught 15 and I had 12. It doesn't matter; we had close to 30 snakes and we couldn't just let them go. But what to do with them?

We were young and stupid but we knew enough to know bringing them in the house could result in very bad things happening. We could easily foresee heinie whackings or groundings or more chores if our mom found them or if they got away in the house.

We wracked our brains to find a solution when we had the brilliant idea to keep them in the worm box in the basement. Perfect.

An older brother had a less than thriving business picking and selling nightcrawlers to local fishermen and kept his product in a worm box in the cellar. He had lots of worms but few customers and mostly, I think, forgot he even had the business.

The worm box was huge; it was at least 6 feet long, 3 feet high, and 3 deep. Imagine a poorly made coffin. It was painted a light blue and sat in the back of the basement in the darkest, coolest spot. It was about half filled with dirt and worms.

While, technically, the basement was a part of the house, we reasonably reasoned as only young boys can; snakes can't climb and they certainly can't navigate stairs. What do they say about experience being the best instructor?

Satisfied with the solution, we dumped our catch in the box, closed the lid and went off to see whatever it was the evening had in store for us.

The next few days were a repeat. Wake up, chores, beat feet for the creek to cool off and then a snake hunt. A new friend, Skunk, joined us on one of the days.

By the time of the great snake escape, we probably had close to 100 snakes in the worm box. It was hard to judge because they would not stay still for a count, and - I can't speak for my brother - my ability to count decreased dramatically once I got past twenty. Twenty-one if I were naked.

It is disputed to this day how the snakes got out. I think somebody left the lid ajar, my brother asserts they just found a hole. It doesn't matter now, and it didn't matter then. The only thing that mattered is that a mob of snakes made a break for it.

If the snakes had done the logical thing and gone out the door leading outside there would have been no problem. But, no. They went in every possible direction and we learned that, yes, snakes can climb stairs.

I was reading a book in our room. Tom Sawyer, maybe, or Moby Dick, perhaps? Regardless of what I was reading, I was yanked from the plot by a sister's screams coming from the kitchen.

A sister's screams may be differentiated by volume and pitch. A shrill, piercing warble could mean anything from, "Somebody ate the muffin I was saving for later." to "A serial killer is breaking in the front door." On the other hand, a shriek that can decalcify your spinal column from one floor away can be loosely translated as, "My goodness, there appear to be a great number of snakes writhing around in the kitchen."

It sounded like banshees were running amok. Pots and pans were crashing, Mom was yelling, the dog was barking, and I could hear Dad laughing.

Though it was already dark outside, my brother and I slipped out of our window and managed to make it to ground level without breaking anything and beat feet for the creek.

-

Suffice it to say, upon our return, my brother and I had our backsides paddled. While I wasn't a fan of spankings, I just stoically accepted them as consequences for whatever it was that I had done.

For the next day or so Mom could hardly turn around without a Garter snake asking her to dance, and every time, Mom reflexively swatted whatever child was closest, even those who had nothing to do with the snakes running amok in the house. She was frazzled and harried and at her wits ends.

The worst of it was a few days later when she had a group of local ladies over for coffee and nisu. We had only been in town a few months and Mom was going out of her way to make friends.

Apparently (fortunately, my brother and I weren't there) the ladies were settled in the living room, trading gossip, nibbling on various Finnish confectionaries, and listening to Mom's Verdi and Rossini record albums when a garter snake decided emerge from under the couch.

The snake, perhaps just hungry for Mom's korvapuusti, or looking for the elusive exit, slid up on Mrs. Pelkkanen's shoe to have a look or maybe join in the conversation. One of the ladies across the room spotted the snake and tried to sound the alarm, sucked a piece of nisu into her throat and began to choke. She began coughing and trying to point as the lady next to her began pounding on her back in an effort to dislodge the obstruction.

At that point, another lady screamed, not bothering to point, which set off other ladies screaming for no particular reason.

The snake, apparently insulted at the less than cordial welcome, proceeded to slither across Mom's area rug towards possible freedom.

Mom was so incensed at the snake's cheeky gall she jumped up to get rid of the serpent but stumbled into the coffee table, spilling the coffee pot all over Mrs. Suuri's white skirt, and flipped the tray of treats across the room. Mom began snarling at the snake and spitting with ineffectual rage.

Fortunately, my oldest sister, keeping her wits about her, grabbed the broom and brusquely swept the garter into the dust pan and deposited the snake outdoors, which was all it wanted in the first place.

When calm was restored, the ladies were all laughing about the unusual entertainment and Mom had made several fast friends. Even Mrs. Suuri was mollified when Mom offered to clean her skirt, or replace it if cleaning didn't work.

If Mom was grateful for our assistance in expanding her social circles she had a strange way of showing it.

For the next two days my brother and I were required to pull every piece of furniture from each room, one room at a time, certify the room was snake-free, and replace the furnishings.

Without bothering to inform Mom, we found about a half-dozen snakes in various locations which were all set free in the garden.

[saturnskyline]

temptation tuesday

rules: share something about an idea you have/something that's speaking to you/an au you'd like to see and are considering writing/etc. etc. Basically anything that is tempting you away from your current wips!

tagged by @lu-sn, thank you so much!! still in awe that we're mutuals tbh, you're the coolest <3

well.... the question is, what is NOT tempting me away from my current wips 🥲 apologies to anyone who has kept up with my snippet posting bc none of those are remotely close to done yet fjdkskfjs. for starters, my main wips from before were the vegaspete oneshot ("when i look deep down") and lita polycule shenanigans (as yet untitled). now, i have several more ideas that are circulating and i have no idea where i'm going with ANY of them, let alone the actual wips 😭 😭 anyway here's the shortlist eh oh el

vegaspete watersports of all things ??? i'm surprised too, this coming from a person who literally has never attempted smut ever and now i'm suddenly tempted to try THIS 💀 no title yet, but i do know that if this gets finished, there will be sexy gaslighting involved (both a threat and a promise)

drugged vegaspete sex where pete gets drugged as part of an earlier negotiation. SMUT AGAIN I KNOW. LITERALLY WHERE DID THIS COME FROM. anyway, if that even goes well, the working title is "i put your love on and sank into the glow" from a very lovely vegaspete coded song <3

had a thought recently (which i think i've read in fics before) about vegas having a garden and i just MAY have to write it smh. anywayyy most important part is he feeds pete with it and i think that's beautiful

toddblack something. very vague but i want biting and kissing for them so that's the starting point 🥰

3 will be free brainrot. consuming me always, to the point of me wanting to not only try smut but write sex for three people 😶 although i guess if i actually go through with lita there's four involved there sooooo. basically i guess i'm looking to try writing new things hehe

winteam !!!! who knows lol but they are certainly speaking to me and i have a google doc open there so that's something

so yeah, those are the current brain worms! hopefully i can finish at least one of them in the near future, or i may be in danger of losing my mind :D enough from me though, better tag some other folks @pitchercries @mandaloresson @m-a-w-a @lady-guts @shubaka in case you're interested ❤️❤️

[dravencore]

“Do you remember the arboretum? Specifically the sun lamps?” 

Knives looked at him, recognized the olive branch for what it was, and grunted in affirmation. 

Vash smiled brightly and Knives immediately looked away with a scowl. Whatever - progress was progress.

“Remember how we would lay in the grass for hours and just… soak it in? Until,” he paused and bit his lip. The next word he wanted to say had the potential to break whatever tenuous peace they had. He decided to play it safe and skip it altogether. “Until we were asked what we were doing?” 

Knives’ scowl deepened at the implication of Rem, but he was still listening. He scoffed, “We were trying to photosynthesize.” 

“Yeah, but we didn’t know that at the time! We just knew it felt good.” 

“Instinct,” Knives shrugged. “We knew what we were from the beginning.” 

Vash ignored that last part and continued, “D’you remember what it tasted like?” 

He vividly remembered trying to describe it to Rem and never really getting her to understand. 

At that Knives looked back at him. He was silent for several moments, reaching for a memory that was barely there. “... sweet,” he eventually answered. 

“I know you remember more than that, but alright. Anyway, it was the coolest thing ever, right?” 

“What’s the point of this?” 

“I’ll get there, shut up,” Vash swatted at Knives like he was a worm larva, “Then, we… landed, let’s call it… on this planet and felt the real sun for the first time? Remember that sunrise

Vash felt a spark of excitement when he saw Knives smile. 

“We were incapacitated.”

“Completely drunk on sunlight! It was like those sun lamps times a million - we had no idea what to do with all that!”

“You threw up.” 

“Shut up you did too,” he gently shoved Knives’ shoulder and Knives shoved him back. They shared a small laugh before either of them could think better of it. 

“We didn’t sleep for months after that.”

Vash laughed, remembering the hazy sleepless nights coming down from the high of UV radiation. 

Knives sighed, “Why are we talking about this, Vash? That was so long ago.”

“Because,” after a moment of deliberation, he cautiously leaned against his brother. When he didn’t jerk away Vash continued, “Because you’re the only one who can understand. You’re the only person I can talk to about this.” 

Knives was silent. 

“I miss you, Nai. I miss my brother.” 

“I’m right here.” 

“Are you?” Vash fired back before he could think twice about it. He sighed sharply and rubbed the incoming headache away. “I don’t want to fight. I’m so tired of fighting.” 

After an almost achingly long period of silence, Vash felt Knives’ weight settle against his shoulder. In a voice that was almost too quiet to hear he replied, “I’m… also tired.” 

“It’s a miracle! We finally found something we can agree on!” 

Nai shoved him so hard he tipped over and Vash laughed the entire way down.

[duckmutual]

I'll post pics from the con and my haul at some point (and make a beautiful display for my Miku nendroid I didn't know I wanted until I was holding it) but for now highlights eeee

Periodically hearing "Hi Barbie!" "Hi Barbie~" from all the barbie cosplayers

My Sinclair cosplay being recognized by not one, not two, but THREE groups, despite it being very lowkey!!! ❤️❤️❤️ i appreciate y'all

Someone wanting a picture on the day I didn't cosplay at all, just did a fancy outfit

Stamp rallies!! I've never done one before but I finished THREE and I'm gonna put the link click one up on my wall.

SCENE NYAN CAT COSPLAYER. I didn't end up asking for a photo but you were the COOLEST

The link and Zelda artist alley booth!!! In my other post I'll put their socials they were so nice and had such cool stuff

ENSTARS COSPLAYER WHO GAVE ME A NIKI CARD????

Tsukasa cosplayer giving me a worm on a string after I asked for a picture of them with my Wonderland Miku nendroid. I felt like a kid meeting santa

This con awakened interests I didn't know I had (or cared this much about). Nendroid collecting? Project Sekai? Foamcrafting? TikTok dances (who AM I)?? It was so Fucking joyful and. To every single person who was there, you helped make it awesome. My favorite part of cons is just experiencing crowds full of nerds unapologetically loving what they love, and sharing that love with others, and it's so magical

[shadow--writer]

omg the can of worms you have opened... XDDD

Here you go with my go-to info dump from an animation enthusiast!!

Let me tell you about a fascinating little piece of animation history called the 'Multiplane Camera'! Way, way back in the 1930's, during a time when one of the coolest things was a cartoon in full technicolor! Disney engineers managed to perfect a device that came to be known as the multiplane camera. The multiplane camera was able to allow animators to give the illusion of depth, similar to when an actual cameraman would use the zoom function. Earlier versions were able to pan from one side of the background to the other, but none of them quite made it feel like the viewer could go into the scene. This was done by having parts of the background and various scenery painted on glass/plastic animation cells. The camera, and the painted layers would then be slowly moved closer together at different speeds, literally centimeters at a time. When complete, this gave the illusion that the viewer was moving through the painted environment toward the focus point of the background. With the completion of the camera, and its effects perfected, Disney's animated short, The Old Mill, won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. You can still see it on YouTube, and it is still a beautiful piece of media <3

I didn't see this during my last mental breakdown but I saw it for this one while looking through my inbox!

I've seen videos of this being done!!!! It's so fucking cool oh my god, art and animation is so fucking cool. People wanted to make 2D art that moved and had colour and voice acting so more people could enjoy it and I could CRY.

[cassioppenny]

dont feel too bad abt not talking/posting much! dw i get it u_u BUT!!! if youd like id like to hear anything u have to say abt milesverse galar.....OR. if theres any interesting milesverse legendary/mythical lore thatd be mega cool too!!! :0

thank you neela!! that means a lot to me

in milesverse galar the main character is gloria and she travels around with her older brother victor (he's 15 and she's 13), hop, and eventually marnie. victor went on a journey when he was 13 but gave up before the first gym. this caused gloria to be extremely disappointed in him and they basically hate eachother now. gloria thinks victor is a failure and victor thinks gloria is an annoying self absorbed brat.

gloria looks up to leon a lot and thinks of him as her real older brother and wants to one day surpass him and become a new unbeatable champion. she's kinda egotistical and thinks she's the coolest guy in the universe. she names her pokemon more and more elaborate and batshit insane things that everyone else either just call it by it's species or shortens the names. she of course have to say their full title out loud no matter what. for example her sobble's name is THE GREAT BLADE OF LEGEND EXCALIBUR THE THIRD but literally everyone just calls him excalibur, exal, or just sobble. no one knows where excalibur the second is. also exal isn't even a sword.

victor is forced to go with gloria by their mom and is basically the brock of the group if brock was actually the biggest hater on the planet. he cooks a lot though it's his special interest.

as for the plot i kinda want to figure out a way to make rose's plan not as fucking stupid as it is in canon but im not sure how rn. maybe make the power thing a more urgent emergency or have it so the energy might run out at any moment or something

as for legendaries i would like to think up entire origin myths for all of them (except for like the aliens and the man made horrors) but that'd be like a very long post so im just going to keep to the arceus family for the most part. i think imaging what pokemythology is like is cool

so basically the legendaries that arceus made are dialga and palkia, then the lake trio, then mew, and then finally giritina because i think giritina being the youngest child is funny as hell.

mew is basically the adam/eve of pokemythology but after giving birth to mortal life they decide being a little shit is way funnier and is now basically a trickster god who causes problems on purpose like giving volo immortality.

another example mew got bored during rgby and started rping as a human basically and becomes the indigo champion. fucks with the kanto trio and probably made their friendship divorce even worse, stole the masterball, stole a truck, had green capture mewtwo for them, takes mewtwo and then fucks off.

giritina isn't like actually evil. they're basically just an angsty lonely teenager with anger issues if they were also worm satan. they get easily attached to any human that's nice to them (volo and dawn) and can communicate to them through their thoughts which have the unfortunate side effect of fucking them up mentally a bit. volo had it worse since giritina was more pissed back then compared to dppt.

arceus is the most out of touch dad who tries to be supportive but always makes everything worse somehow ever. they overhear lucas having an argument with dawn over how lucas feels like he's not as good as his friends since he's not a hero like them and arceus thinks "this lad will definitely be the perfect candidate to become the new hisuian hero" and shoved him back in time. they also gave him amnesia since the last guy (alder) kept whining that he had a wife and kids at home. then after lucas did what arceus told him to arceus thinks that giving him a portion of his power by letting him use an arceus avatar in battle instead of taking him home was a good idea.

dialga, palkia, mew, and giritina all don't like them. dialga and palkia are kinda awkward about it like "haha yeah sure dad" whenever arceus says something insanely stupid. mew thinks they're a weenie and the world would probably be better without them but doesn't try overthrowing them by themselves they just give one eyed weirdos immortality to do it for them. giritina is giritina.

the lake trio are chill they just hang out in their caves for the most part.

[cepetriwrites]

Into the Storm - Chapter 6 - Lucerys I

Read on AO3

Summary: Helaena always found her sister Rhaenyra and brother-in-law Laenor more attentive to her than her own parents. As a young child she hopes to marry Jace in order to join gain them as parents. As she grows older she realizes a dark truth, there is a storm coming. With two rising factions threatening to tear apart her family and homeland, she comes up with a solution that can ensure everyone's survival. A marriage between her and Jace, but is such a union even possible with her grandfather's power grab and mother's hatred?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lucerys was the youngest of the newest generation of Tarygaryens, there were upsides, being fawned over as the baby of the family, and downsides, being treated like the baby of the family. His aunt Helaena was always trying to play house with him and Jace, and making him be the baby. Almost everyone called her weird, or ‘unique’, but he knew the truth: Helaena was cool.

She was quiet, sure, but she knew the name of every bug and anything that crawled. She had a pet tarantula and scorpion that she let Luke hold. The tarantula tickled. Helaena was probably the coolest Tarygaryen to ever live. Their ancestor Aegon had united the seven kingdoms, but had he ever eaten a live worm?

It had happened one day when Luke was digging through a courtyard showing Helaena every bug he could find and seeing if Helaena knew their name. She was working on her special book that would detail information about every bug in Westeros. He had presented a wood roach to Helaena, to which she said, “Did you know some regions eat bugs?”

“Ewww,” Luke squealed, “Whyyy?”

“They’re crunchy, and tasty, and very filling, apparently.”

“I can’t believe you can eat cockroaches.”

“That’s not the only bug you can eat.” She teased.

Luke started having Helaena flip through her book, asking which bugs can be eaten. The answers were mostly yeses and maybes, only a few were definite nos due to their poisonous innards. Luke spotted something crawling in the dirt beneath them, he pulled out a dirt encrusted worm. “What about this?”

Helaena nodded, “You can even eat it raw. Try it.” Helaena pushed the worm towards Luke’s face. He laughed and dodged the wriggling creature.

“No! You!” He shoved the worm into her hand, “I dare you!” Helaena stared at him for a moment, looked around the courtyard for any witnesses, and then, to Luke’s shock and delight, threw him a wink and then tossed the worm back, and swallowed.  Luke squealed like a pig, part excitement, part disgust, “What did it taste like?”

“Dirt. And it wiggles on the way down.” Yes, Helaena was the coolest Targaryen, and only Luke got to see it. It felt like his personal secret.  He didn’t even tell Jace! Playing house got old, he was starting to get at the age where being carried felt childish, but Helaena let him have pet bugs and touch her tarantula when he agreed. 

Not only that, she had spent the last few months intensely dedicated to her dragon training. His mother had been very hesitant to give permission, establishing several rules and benchmarks Helaena had to meet. She gently warned him Helaena may be too wrapped up in getting to know her new dragon to be focused on giving him rides. To his mother’s surprise (and probable chagrin), Helaena stayed true to her promise and focused on building a bond and mastering Dreamfyre to Rhaenyra’s comfort. Today was the final test. Rhaenyra had given Helaena a sequence of aerial commands to attempt. If Helaena successfully led Dreamfyre through it, then she could give Luke a short ride, with Rhaenyra accompanying on Syrax. Up, down, diving, gliding, steering left and right, Dreamfyre smoothly went through the sequence, finishing with a smooth landing in front of Rhaenyra and Luke.

“She did it!”

“Yes… she did,” Luke could tell his mother did not want to allow this, but a promise was a promise, no take backs. Helaena called Luke over and he hurried to climb onto Dreamfyre before Rhaenyra put a stop to everything. 

Luke was sat in front of Helaena, and tied in, “You can feel her scales,” Helaena placed both their hands on the dragon's side.

He could feel vibrations under his hand, “She’s purring!” 

“She does that a lot, and stretches like a cat, I think she might be one.” Once mother was on her mount and gave her nod, Helaena gave the command and Dreamfyre took to the sky.  The she-dragon climbed into the sky until the people of King’s Landing were the size of ants. Dreamfyre began gliding in a lazy circle around the city, with Syrax flying by their side. Luke excitedly waved at his mother. He had ridden on hers and father’s dragons before, but each ride on a different dragon was a unique experience. He stuck his hands in the air and enjoyed the wind whipping through his curls. Luke couldn’t wait till Arrax was large enough to ride. It would only be a few more years hopefully.

“Can you have her dive?” Luke asked.

“Your mom will kill me!” Helaena said.

“It’d be worth it!” His aunt decided against pushing her sister’s patience, and after about ten minutes safely landed them on the ground. He wanted to stay in the sky forever.

Helaena gave Luke a hug and whispered in his ear, “Tomorrow, sunrise, I’ll let you and Jace take some dives on Dreamfyre. Don’t tell your mom.” He nodded, nearly bursting with excitement. He couldn’t wait to tell Jace.  

The next morning, as the dawn was breaking, Luke was waiting with Jace near the entrance of the dragon pit, which faced the sea. The young prince was buzzing with excitement, he wasn’t a troublemaker like Aegon. He would normally never be near the dragonpit unsupervised. Only Aemond had a penchant for trying to get barbecued. Which made today so exciting, a secret dragon ride before everyone was awake! Luke knew the aerial moves Dreamfyre was capable of, he was excited to experience it. He and his brother had snuck out before the sun had started rising, and crammed a small breakfast of apples, cheese, and bread that Jace had secured the night before.

He heard the gate open, and Dreamfyre came sauntering out without keepers. They were lax with Helaena, who always responsibly returned the she-dragon to her nest. Dreamfyre had a lot of energy as well, and would often take solo flights for hours after Helaena had ridden her. 

Once Luke had gotten settled in place, Helaena handed him a pair of glass goggles. “What are these for?” 

“It makes the dives less irritating on your eyes. Is your cloak secured?” Luke double checked and nodded. He had been ordered to dress warm, as the early morning and high altitude would be a chilly combination. 

“Soves Dreamfyre.” The dragon leapt into the air with a speed that jerked Luke back into Helaena. Cold air rushed past his ears making him shiver. Higher and higher they climbed. “Are you sure about this Luke?” Helaena asked.

“Yes!”

Helaena gripped the handles on her saddle, “Brace yourself.”

Luke placed his hands next to Helaena, they were cold and clammy, his heart beating fast in anticipation. He was glad to be between Helaena’s arms, it made him feel safe. “Why?”

“Because Dreamfyre wants to have fun.”

Dreamfyre gracefully and slowly arced her body up and then down, for a moment, as Luke and Helaena were the highest point on the dragon’s body, it felt as if time stood still. He could see the glorious city, the bay, and orange and pink colored clouds. It was breathtaking. Suddenly they were rushing towards the sea, faster and faster, his tiny body was shaking from the wind battering him. Dreamfyre had folded in her wings to increase her speed. Helaena started screaming in excitement and Luke joined her, the wind drowned them out. The ocean was approaching at a dangerous rate, but Dreamfyre did not pull up. When was Helaena going to give the signal? Less than a hundred feet, neither rider or dragon was moving. Jace was starting to get bigger.

“When do you pull up? Helaena? HELAENA! HELAENA PULL UP!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, they were fifty feet above the ocean. Dreamfyre unfurled her wings and the dive turned into a level glide. He collapsed in relief against Helaena.

His aunt was laughing, “Dreamfyre! You almost gave him a heart attack!” She said in Common and then in Valyrian. The dragoness made a noise that sounded like laughter. He started shaking, “Are you alright?” She asked, squeezing his shoulder.

“That was amazing! I want more!” He said giggling.

“Oh Dreamfyre,” Helaena said in a sing-song voice, he felt a shudder run through Dreamfyre’s body. He was not bound to the dragon, but even he could feel the excitement radiating off of the beast. “Soves.” Soves meant flight, but the tone Helaena used signaled the permission Dreamfyre was waiting for. 

She shot up again, going completely vertical and then soaring backwards into three loop de loops. His stomach did three corresponding somersaults. Dreamfyre climbed higher and soared horizontally before spinning her body. Luke felt as if his eyes were rolling around in his skull. She did another dive, shorter, and getting closer to the ocean, so close the sea sprayed him as he screamed in delight. The future Lord of Driftmark, both dragons and the sea were a delight to him.  

Helaena landed near Jace, Luke tried to climb off, but found his legs were made of pudding. He slid down and collapsed, the world was very wobbly. “Luke! You’re green!” Jace said, running to help him up.

Luke opened his mouth to tell him how amazing the flight had been, instead he vomited, dropping to his knees. Helaena was by his side, “Are you okay?” He dropped to the ground, and rolled to his back, giving Helaena a shaky thumbs up. 

“Best. Flight. Ever!” His muscles were sore from gripping so tight, every extremity was chilled, the ground and his stomach were still moving, he couldn’t wait to do it again.

“Maybe you shouldn’t do this Jace,” Helaena said, probably worried about their mother, Luke would make sure he wasn’t sick before he needed to go back to his quarters.

“Are you kidding! I have to ride Dreamfyre, and I’m not throwing up.”

Luke looked at Dreamfyre, who he swore winked at him. Five minutes later Jace was back on the beach, on his hands and knees, trying not to vomit while Helaena and Luke were in tears laughing. “He looks like a cat.” Luke said as his brother’s back rose up and down as he tried to quell the rising vomit.

“Jace c’mon, you’ll feel better afterwards,” Helaena said, Jace finally relented and vomited, before collapsing like Luke had. “Why aren’t you sick?” 

“I skipped breakfast.” She flinched away from the handfuls of sand they threw at her while yelling. Once they had recovered, the boys dunked themselves in the ocean to wash away the smell of dragon. They rushed back to their quarters to get changed for the morning. Mother would likely chastise them for going to the beach unattended. Father would wave it off, saying they were Velaryons, of course they were going to play in the ocean. Luke was an erratic mess for the septons that day.  Instead of giving his full attention to the history of Westeros or training in the yard, he daydreamed of his flight on Dreamfyre, and when he could do it again.